Delhi [India], August 30 (ANI): India's Ambassador to Germany, Ajit V Gupte, held a series of meetings this week aimed at boosting cooperation between New Delhi and Berlin in the defence and infrastructure sectors.

Earlier on Friday, Ambassador Gupte met Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan in New Delhi.

Their discussions centred on strengthening military cooperation and expanding the defence partnership between India and Germany.

'Germany is an important defence partner for India with steadily growing ties through joint air and naval exercises, training and joint collaboration,' the embassy said in a post on X.

https://x.com/eoiberlin/status/1961505082874499367

A day earlier, on August 28, Gupte called on Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. The talks focused on India-Germany collaboration in road transport and highway development, hydrogen buses, and innovative approaches to sustainable transportation. Both sides also explored ways to strengthen institutional as well as business-to-business linkages in the sector.

The embassy wrote in an X post, 'They discussed India-Germany cooperation in road transport & highways development, hydrogen buses, innovative means of sustainable transportation and ways to strengthen institutional, as well as B2B linkages.'

He also called on President Droupadi Murmu and briefed her on recent developments in the India-Germany Strategic Partnership.

The meetings come as India and Germany continue to deepen their strategic partnership, with cooperation spanning across defence, infrastructure, green energy, and technology.

Earlier this week, reacting to high tariffs imposed by the United States (US), Georg Enzweiler, Deputy Head of Mission, German Embassy in India, said that Germany would always be in favour of reducing tariffs to the minimum levels.

'Tariffs are obstacles to free trade. We would always be in favour of reducing tariffs to the minimum level,' Enzweiler said.

Speaking on the bilateral trade relations of India and Germany, he said that the interests of the two countries are aligned amid the volatile global conditions and both countries can contribute to stabilising the unstable world order.

'I think Germany's and India's interests are aligned. The international order is in a volatile state at the moment, and India and Germany can play an important role in stabilising the international order and preserving it,' he added.

On the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) between India-EU, he said, 'The signals we are getting are very positive, we hope that we will see the negotiations come to a fruitful result near the end of the year. The PM and President of the EU Commission have indicated that they would like to see finalisation of the agreement by the end of 2025. We are hopeful that it will happen.' (ANI)