Annalena Baerbock, German Foreign Minister on her first visit to India will address the climate crisis and sign a mobility agreement in a meeting with her Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
During her two-day visit to India starting Monday, the focus of her talks will be on environmental issues and a rules-based international order.
Earlier, before leaving for India on Sunday, Baerbock said, “The fact that India is prepared to use its weight revealed itself recently at the G20 summit in Bali, when it took a clear position at the G20 against the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Underlining the importance of India in the world, the German FM said “As a rising economic power and established democracy, India is both an example and a bridge-builder for many countries in the world, despite its social challenges domestically,”
On Thursday, India officially took over as chair of the G20, comprising most of the world’s largest economies. However, India, a nuclear power with some 1.4 billion inhabitants, has refused to participate in sanctions imposed on Russia by Western countries and abstained on UN resolutions on the war in Ukraine.
India will take over China as the most populous country in the world as early as next year. “There is no doubt that India will decisively influence the shaping of the international order in the 21st century,” Baerbock added.
Baerbock also announced that she would sign a mobility agreement in New Delhi “that will make it easier for our people to study, conduct research and to work in each other’s country.”
India and Germany maintaining a strategic partnership since 2000 have held intergovernmental consultations every two years since 2011, the earliest being in Berlin this year in May.
