For Germany and India, Forging Closer Ties Won't Be Easy |
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Top German politicians have a new favourite travel destination: India. Following the recent visit by foreign minister Johann Wadephul, Chancellor Friedrich Merz is heading to New Delhi on Sunday (January 11) with a larger delegation.
The reasons for Germany’s heightened interest in the world’s most populous country (India has about 1.45 billion people) are both economic and geopolitical: according to a prognosis from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Indian economy will grow significantly more than China’s this year. Germany, meanwhile, has been stuck in recession for almost three years.
Germany is also desperately looking for skilled workers – and is finding more and more of them in India. Meanwhile, Indians have become the largest group of foreign students at German universities.
“India’s strengths are primarily in the services sector,” said Christian Wagner, India specialist at the Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “India serves as the office of the global economy. China, on the other hand, is more like the factory of the global economy.”
India has undergone rapid development in the process, Wagner told DW. “It began with the call centres. Now it is the research facilities. Many large German companies have outsourced their research institutes to India. And the Indian students who come to us mostly do degrees in science and........