Indo german economic ties

Indo german economic ties

The multiple agreements were signed between the German chancellor Angela Merkel and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the recent visit paid by German head to India in New Delhi. The joint declaration of intent and exchange agreements signed between the countries are expected to increase the growth by supplementing the each other’s necessities. The fields in which the agreements are signed include space, AI, medicine, maritime security, digital technology, education etc. Cooperation with economic powerhouses like Germany can help the countries like India to boost the growth prospects and meeting the targets of New India 2022.

Key Highlights:

Bilateral relations between the Republic of India and Germany have been traditionally strong due to commercial, cultural and technological co-operation Germany is the second largest trading partner and second largest research partner to India. Developing Asian regions are seen as the big opportunities for western countries, Germany being the one of the major player in west has always a desire to invest and cooperate with Asia.

India already has Indo-German bilateral Strategic forum and both the countries has similar policy approaches, hence matching the key areas and developing them can benefit both countries.

Fuel cell technology, e-mobility, medicine, automobile are the sectors where Germany the leader in the world, but sectors like defense and information technology are its major areas where it has performed poorly. While India has established its supremacy in the world in IT sector.

The Mutual Game: After Brexit India needs to find the options for Britain the EU, France and Germany are the major European countries with which we are doing really well. For India it would create opportunities in the fields sustainable developments, renewable energy and other faster growing areas.

For Germany it is quite a political, economic, strategic game. The developing Asian countries are huge markets for the countries like Germany. Being at unease with china over its policies like BRI, and issues with Russia over Ukraniam crisis vacate the space for countries like Japan and India. Further declining of US in maritime security, rise of china unpredictably, poor military record of Berlin over last few years are the factors giving the why Germany is looking towards India.

The India-Germany strategic relationship is limited by the insignificance of German geopolitical influence in Asian affairs. Contrary to France and UK, Germany has no strategic footprint in Asia.

Germany has very low unemployment rate and its faster growing sectors require medium to high skilled manpower, while India on the verge of reaping the benefits of demographic dividend can be the huge supplier of skilled manpower.

The similar policy approach as in the Climate change game, renewable energy fields are also the factors bringing the countries together for coordination.

The way forward:

To meet the global challenges both the countries need the cooperation based development, India need to supply the substance to European countries, the new European policies should be frame worked upon the factor like Brexit, strategic shifting in the roles of China and US on global dais. India needs to find its areas where it can deliver.