Germany is promoting German-Indian cooperation by promising faster visa processing and grants to promote environmentally friendly energy production.

During her visit to New Delhi, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) signed an agreement to facilitate “mobility and migration” between the two countries.

Johannes Leithauser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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At the end of the German presidency, Baerbock traveled to India with the most important western G-7 states, which has just taken over the presidency of the larger group of the most important industrialized and emerging countries.

The minister rated India as a “natural partner” for Germany;

She said that "as an emerging economic power and a solid democracy" it was "both a role model and a bridge builder for many countries in the world" despite all the social challenges at home.

Baerbock referred to the federal government's Indo-Pacific foreign policy guidelines, which were adopted almost two years ago as a foreign policy basis when the grand coalition was formed and which are intended to stimulate greater economic and security policy engagement in the South and East Asian region.

The Russian war of aggression and China's recent course have given these intentions greater urgency.

After the talks with her Indian colleague, Baerbock denied the question of whether India should now replace China as a partner.

It is much more important to "deepen and expand" the long-standing partnership.

Baerbock added that India is not just a "business partner, but also a value partner" for Germany.

Even before their meeting, Baerbock had praised India's stance on the Ukraine war.

The clearer stance that the G-20 countries took on the Russian war of aggression at their most recent summit in Indonesia is ultimately also due to India.

After the talks, the Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar repeated the formula that it is currently “not an era for wars”, which is interpreted as a dissociation from the Russian regime;

On the other hand, he defended the sharp increase in Indian oil imports from Russia.

European countries have received far more energy supplies from Russia for many years than India does now, Jaishankar said.

Partner in combating climate change

Baerbock visited the visa section of the German embassy in Delhi as a gesture of appreciation for the workload of the staff there.

A six-digit number of applications had backed up there and had to be cleared over the past few months;

however, a further increase in the number of applications is expected.

Jaishankar said he hopes the "challenges" in visa issuance will now be addressed so that the mountain of pending applications can be cleared.

Bilateral cooperation between India and Germany could still "grow very strongly".

Baerbock asserted that the German government also wanted to be a partner in Delhi's fight against climate change.

In the next year, Berlin will provide one billion euros for emission-free energy production projects in India, and by 2030 it will be ten billion euros.

The aim is to help India to continue to electrify the country directly from renewable energy sources instead of using fossil fuels first.