India and Germany signs four bilateral agreements in various fields

07 Jun 2011 Evaluate

Germany, India's biggest trading partner in Europe and one of the largest foreign investors in India, signed four bilateral agreements in the fields of science and technology, vocational education, medical research and nuclear physics with Asia’s third largest economy. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held extensive talks on issues including war on terror and security in the Asian subcontinent as well as prevailing political climate in the Middle East and Libya.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Helmholtz Association (HGF), Germany have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on translational efforts in biomedical research for a period of next five years. The MoU will provide for active translational efforts in biomedical research particularly in infectious diseases with long term capacity building for researchers and scientists. The other areas identified under the MOU are Oncology and Biomedical research related to health.

While, welcoming his German counterpart Katherina Reiche in his office, Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah appreciated the large scale deployment of solar energy systems, especially on the rooftops of houses in Germany. He highlighted the problem of lack of electricity and access to energy in remote areas in India and the efforts undertaken to address the issue. He said there is a large scope for greater co-operation between the two countries in the field of developing renewable energy resources, technologies, manpower, etc.

Both the G4 nations which have been supporting each other’s bids for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council, also stressed on speeding up the process of the UN reforms. Germany, which has forged close ties in the field of research and development with India, also has robust economic ties with India given the fact that its annual bilateral trade currently pegged at $21 billion and the two countries have set their sights on further augmenting trade volumes to $29 billion by 2012.

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