India and Germany have a Strategic Partnership since 2001

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Thursday met with German Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach on the latter’s visit to India and discussed maritime cooperation in context of greater engagement by German in the Indo-Pacific.

A tweet by the Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs said, “Foreign Secretary Shringla welcomed German Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Schönbach. Their talks focused on maritime security cooperation in context of greater engagement by Germany in the #IndoPacific in line with its recent IndoPacific Guidelines.”

Vice Admiral Schonbach also called on Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar and discussed avenues to strengthen Navy-to-Navy cooperation and enhance interoperability, a tweet by the Indian Navy had said.

On arrival, the visiting German Naval Chief was welcomed with an impressive Guard of Honour at the South Block lawns in New Delhi.

In December last year, India and Germany had held the 14th Military Cooperation Sub-group Meeting in which the two countries had expressed deep satisfaction at the scope and depth of military cooperation and committed themselves to enhancing the bilateral military ties further.

Bilateral relations between India and Germany are founded on common democratic principles and are marked by a high degree of trust and mutual respect.

India and Germany have a ‘Strategic Partnership’ since 2001. The India-Germany Defence Cooperation Agreement of 2006 provides a framework for bilateral defence cooperation.

To further enhance the Defence Industry and defence cooperation between Germany and India, an Arrangement on Implementation of the Agreement of 6th October 2006 concerning Bilateral Defence Cooperation was signed on February 12, 2019 during the visit of Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh to Berlin.

A High Defence Committee (HDC) meets once per year, co-chaired by the state secretary of the German Ministry of Defence and the Defence Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Defence.
Besides ensuring a regular strategic dialogue the HDC approves programmes which entail about 30 to 40 projects per year.