India, Germany stress the need to further deepen bilateral defence cooperation

India and Germany have acknowledged the need to further deepen bilateral defence cooperation as strategic partners to jointly address global and regional security challenges.

The Joint statement issued after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Markel in New Delhi said that both sides agreed to develop stronger cooperation in Defence Industry testing and certification, especially for design certification of various systems. 

They also reaffirmed the importance of building Digital Partnership to intensify regular interaction and coordination towards collaboration on the next-generation technologies.

Both sides said that strong and effective multilateral cooperation is key to secure peace, stability and prosperity. They said, major challenges of our time, by their nature and global scope, cannot be addressed by countries separately but must be tackled jointly. 

The two leaders underlined the need for all countries to ensure that their territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries in any manner.

The two leaders stressed the importance of



the combined effort of all countries to fight global terrorism and to send out a consistent message that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations is not acceptable.

Referring to the need for presenting a united front in the fight against this global menace, the two leaders called for the finalisation and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) in March 2020.

Germany and India also agreed on consulting each other on identifying best possible approaches on cyber-security and also device methods to identify areas of mutual cooperation in this regard. Both sides reiterated their determination to enhance bilateral trade and investment.

They confirmed the importance of a balanced Free Trade Agreement between India and the European Union and agreed to deepen efforts to restart negotiations between the EU and India on the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement.

Both sides also expressed their intent to work together to foster, encourage and develop cooperation on Artificial Intelligence technologies and thereby promote innovation and sustainable development.