Soon after new govt in Germany, President on India visit

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 21

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife Elke Büdenbender will be on a state visit to India from March 22 to 26. This is Steinmeier’s first visit to India as President.

The visit comes close on the heels of the new grand coalition government of Conservatives and Socialists taking oath in Germany on March 14 with Angela Merkel re-elected as Chancellor in elections held last September.

Joachim Gauck was the last German President to visit India in 2014. A former Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor, Steinmeier will be accorded a ceremonial welcome by President Ramnath Kovind. He will hold official talks with Prime Minister Modi, deliver a speech on "India and Germany -- Ideas and Perspectives" at Delhi University on Friday and also visit Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology to learn about results of top Indian research. While in Delhi the President will also visit the Jama Masjid.

“India’s relationship with Germany is amongst our foremost relations, bilaterally and in global context. After having established Strategic Partnership since 2000, successive governments on the two sides have endeavoured to broaden and deepen this relationship,” said the Ministry of External Affairs in its statement.

India is among select countries with whom Germany holds biennial Summit level Inter-Governmental Consultations (IGC).

President Steinmeier will visit the Museum in Sarnath and a Buddhist temple in Varanasi at the start of his trip.He will interact with students of Banaras Hindu University and participate in the Ganga ‘arti’. Later, on Friday the President will fly to Chennai where German companies are invested largely. He will visit production and training site at Daimler India Commercial Vehicles and IIT Madras Research Park, an important starting point for modern German-Indian technological cooperation.

Germany is an active dialogue partner in rebuilding Afghanistan and is working closely with India on counter terrorism too.The recent US motion at the global watch dog FATF (Financial Action Task Force) plenary to grey list Pakistan for terror financing was co-sponsored by Germany with UK and France. Germany is India’s largest trading partner in Europe with renewable energy, cleaning of rivers, smart cities, railways as key sectors of cooperation. In 2016-17 the bilateral trade turnover was US$ 18.76 billion.There are more than 15,000 Indian students and more than a lakh Indian nationals in Germany.