Germany’s strategic ties with India imp for Indo-Pacific: German Defence Min

New Delhi: The German industry is in a “good place” in the race for India’s project to procure six stealth submarines, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday after holding talks with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh that focused on joint development of key military platforms and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

People familiar with the talks said the Indian side apprised Pistorius about China’s aggressive posturing along Line of Actual Control and also conveyed New Delhi’s apprehensions over possible risks if Pakistan gets critical defence technologies by the West.

After the talks, Pistorius told reporters that Berlin’s strategic ties with New Delhi became more important in the context of the unpredictable situation in the Indo-Pacific, in comments that came amid growing global concerns over China’s increasing military-muscle flexing in the region.

He also indicated Germany’s approach to intensify defence ties with India while noting Europe’s reluctance to deliver weapons to India that he said made New Delhi look towards Russia.

“We are now realising that Russia’s star is sinking, to put it that way,” he said, highlighting the need for a fresh approach at defence ties with India.

“Of course we also talked about the war between Russia and Ukraine. The war has repercussions up to here, in every corner of the world. That’s no surprise. And India is trying very hard to significantly and quickly reduce its dependency on Russia for armaments, which is currently at 60 per cent,” he said.

Talking about the situation in the Indo-Pacific, Pistorius said Germany and Europe concentrated too much on economic relations with China without putting adequate focus on the political implications.

The defence ministry said Singh stressed that India and Germany could build a more “symbiotic relationship” based on shared goals and complementarity of strength, namely skilled workforce and competitive costs from India and high technologies and investment from Germany.

“I think we should, and we can and we ought to do more in that region (Indo-Pacific) in partnership with India. Because we are approaching times we can’t really predict what’s going to happen in the next few years,” Pistorius told the media in German.