New Delhi, Jan 12 (EFE).- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday pitched closer defence cooperation with India as a way to reduce New Delhi’s long-standing reliance on Russia, sharpening European pressure on the world’s most populous country over its deepening energy and strategic ties with Moscow amid the war in Ukraine.
Merz laid bare Europe’s strategic nudge to break India free from Russia despite New Delhi’s insistence on safeguarding its energy security.
“We want to deepen our defense industries and the cooperation of our defense industries and this has strategic significance that strengthens both, and that leads to the fact that India is less dependent on Russia,” Merz told reporters alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two leaders held talks in the western Indian city of Gandhinagar, the capital of Modi’s home state of Gujarat on the first of Merz’s two-day visit to India.
The two sides will review the 25-year-old India-Germany Strategic Partnership and discuss ways to deepen cooperation in trade, investment, technology, education, defence, green development and people-to-people ties.
The visit aims to build on regular high-level engagement and reinforce a forward-looking partnership between India and Germany. On Jan. 13, Merz is scheduled to visit Bosch and the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering before departing for Germany.
The German chancellor acknowledged existing frictions between India and its Western partners, as the European Union and the United States press New Delhi to scale back its economic and energy ties with Moscow.
“No, we don’t always agree in all matters, and that holds true for our European partners as well,” Merz said.
“But the overlaps we’re seeing are very big indeed, and this is why we want to cooperate more closely in the field of security policy. We host joint exercises of our Navy and Air Force and we have joined port visits, military joint visits, and we have forms of consultations.”
Merz added that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine represents “the most drastic expression” of the ongoing shift in the global order, and called on India to affirm shared values with Germany in the evolving international landscape.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, India has sharply increased its purchases of Russian crude oil, transforming them from a marginal source into one of its main energy supplies, following the redirection of Russian exports toward Asia in response to Western sanctions.
New Delhi argues that these purchases are a matter of “vital national necessity” to ensure affordable energy for its population, and has accused both the United States and the European Union of applying a double standard while continuing their own energy and strategic trade with Moscow.
Merz’s visit comes amid heightened European engagement with Asia as governments seek new strategic partners, and coincides with trips by other world leaders this week, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to China and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s tour of Japan and South Korea.
Merz also stressed the urgency of the long-awaited Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union, saying that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to India later this month to sign the pact.
Modi and von der Leyen pledged in September to conclude the EU-India FTA before the end of 2025, a deadline that expired last week without an agreement.
While progress has been reported in areas such as sustainable development, negotiations have stalled over market access, with the EU seeking greater openness in India’s highly protected market for cars, wines and dairy products, and New Delhi pressing for improved access for its textile and agricultural exports. EFE
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