Bilateral relations between the Republic of India and Germany have been traditionally strong due to commercial, cultural and technological co-operation.
History
Historic relations
A Sikh soldier (of the 4th Division (the Red Eagles) of the Indian Army, attached to the British Fifth Army in Italy) holding a captured swastika flag after the surrender of Nazi German forces in Italy. Behind him, fascist inscriptions on the mural says VIVA IL DUCE, "Long live the Duke" (Benito Mussolini). Photo circa May 1945
During World War I, India was ruled as an empire by the British monarch as the Emperor of India. Consequently, the Indian Army was ordered to contribute soldiers to the Allied war effort, including on the Western Front. Pro-independence activists within the colonial armies sought German assistance in procuring India's freedom, resulting in the Hindu–German Conspiracy during World War I.
During World War II, the Allied war effort mobilized 2.5 million volunteer troops from India. Subhas Chandra Bose, a prominent Indian independence activist, made a determined effort to obtain India's independence from Britain by seeking military assistance from the Axis powers. The Indische Legion was formed to serve as a liberation force for India and was principally made up of Indian PoWs and expatriates in Europe.
The newly formed Republic of India was one of the first nations to end the State of War with Germany after World War II and did not claim war reparations from Germany although 24,000 soldiers serving in the Indian Army died in the campaign to fight Germany.[8]
India maintained diplomatic relations with both West Germany and East Germany and supported their reunification in 1990.[9][10]
Germany condemned India for liberating Goa from Portuguese rule in 1961 and supported Portugal's dictatorial regime under Salazar against India. Germany was critical of India for intervening in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Germany rejected India's 1998 nuclear tests[9] with Chancellor Helmut Kohl saying: "This was the wrong decision for them to take; we do not accept that decision."[11]
The India-Germany strategic relationship is limited by the insignificance of German geopolitical influence in Asian affairs. Contrary to France and the UK, Germany has no strategic footprint in Asia.
Over the past decade, Indo-German trade grew in volume but dropped in importance.[12] According to Indian Ministry of Commerce MX data: Total trade between India and Germany was $5.5 billion (3.8% share of Indian trade and ranked 6) in 2004 and $21.6 billion (2.6% share of Indian trade and ranked 9) in 2013. Indian exports to Germany were $2.54 billion (3.99% ranked 6) in 2004 and $7.3 billion (2.41% ranked 10) in 2013.
Indian imports from Germany were $2.92 billion (3.73% ranked 6) in 2004 and $14.33 billion (2.92% ranked 10) in 2013.[13]
Global geopolitical reordering
India and Germany both seek to become permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and have joined with Japan and Brazil to coordinate their efforts via the G4 collective.[14] At the UN General Assembly summit in New York in September 2015, the P5 members of the UNSC dismissed any notion of dilution of their power at the UN's high-table and severely undermined efforts by G4 nations to gain access to the exclusive club. While India maintains that it will continue to demand a permanent seat with veto powers within a reformed UNSC with privileges identical to the P5 nations, it has signalled that strengthening of bilateral economic and political ties with neighbouring countries is the immediate priority.[15][16] Prevailing consensus within the United Nations that Europe is already over-represented within the UN Security Council, juxtaposed with long-established opposition from within Europe to the German candidature, constitute indomitable obstacles which confront Germany.[17][18][19][20][21]
Defence and security
A German delegation led by Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen interacting with senior officers of the Indian Navy's Western Naval Command in Mumbai; 28 May 2015.
India and Germany maintain an ongoing dialogue in the areas of commercial maritime security and cooperation in the field of anti-terrorism. The Indian Navy and the German Navy conducted joint-exercises in 2008 for the first time, following an anti-piracy co-operation agreement between the two nations signed in 2006.[citation needed]
Germany's military is principally structured to defend Eastern Europe and to supporting NATO operations in the Western European theatre of operations.[22] Unlike UK and France, Germany not only does not have any sovereign territories in the Indo-Pacific region but is also incapable of power projection.[23][24][25]
Hostile public sentiment in Germany towards overseas combat operations[26] and the inability of Germany to independently sustain high-intensity long-range military deployments are obstacles to a meaningful strategic defense and security relationship.
As part of Germany's strategic transformation and strengthening of cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG and India's Mazagon Dockyard Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly bid for the construction of submarine for the Indian Navy. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has stressed that India's continued reliance on Russian weapons is not in Germany's interest, he also acknowledging that "Germany cannot change (India's reliance on Russian weapons) on our own".[27]
Cultural and educational cooperation
Germany has supported education and cultural programmes in India. Germany helped establish the Indian Institute of Technology Madras after both governments signed an agreement in 1956 and increased its co-operation and supply of technology and resources over the decades to help expand the institution.[28][29]
In the late 1960s, German aircraft designer Kurt Tank, who worked for Focke-Wulf during World War II, went to work in India. Kurt was first employed as the Director of the Madras Institute of Technology, and later joined Hindustan Aeronautics, where he designed the Hindustan Marut fighter-bomber, the first military aircraft constructed in India. Kurt Tank left Hindustan Aeronautics in 1967 and by the 1970s had returned to live in Berlin.
Both nations established the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre in New Delhi to promote joint research and development in energy, environment, coal and water technologies.[30][29]
India and Germany have signed a MoU regarding the teaching of German language in Kendriya Vidyalaya public schools in India and the reciprocal introduction of Sanskrit and modern Indian language in government schools in Germany.
Stiff competition between foreign manufactured goods within the Indian market has seen machine-tools, automotive parts and medical supplies from German Mittelstand ceding ground to high-technology imports manufactured by companies located in ASEAN & BRICS countries.[31][32][33][34]
For the 2012-2013 (April–July) period, India's top 10 trading partners according to data published by the Indian Ministry of Commerce:[13][35]
According to German Statistisches Bundesamt Indo-German trade data for 2014 : total trade with India was €15.98 billion (ranked 25) with €1.86 billion trade balance in Germany's favour. German exports to India was €8.92 billion (ranked 25), German imports from India was €7.06 billion (ranked 27).[36] By 2023, total trade had grown to €30.8 billion (ranked 23) with €2.19 billion trade balance in Germany's favour.[37]
Germany is India's largest trading partner in Europe. Germany is the 8th largest foreign direct investor (FDI) in India. Germany's FDI totaled about US$5.2 billion during the period 2000–2012, constituting about 3% of total FDI to India. Indian investments in Germany have seen sharp increase in last few years.[38] (Note: As a measure of comparison, Remittances to India by the Indian diaspora worldwide was US$70 billion in 2013–14).[39][40]
Indian Prime-Minister Narendra Modi jointly opened the Hannover trade fair Hannover Messe 2015 on 12 April 2015 along with Angela Merkel [41] and held trade & investment discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.[42]
In September 2015, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) was instructed by the Indian government to investigate if vehicles from Volkswagen had circumvented Indian laws and regulations on vehicle emission testing following the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Ambuj Sharma, additional secretary at the Ministry of Heavy Industry, said: "ARAI has been asked to submit its report within a week."[43][44][45]
Bilateral trade
German imports from India amounted to $9.51 billion or 2.26% of India's overall exports in 2021. The 10 major commodities exported from India to Germany were:[46][47]
Articles of apparel, knit or crocheted: $547.51 million
Vehicles other than railway, tramway: $498.97 million
Articles of iron or steel: $429.93 million
Articles of apparel, not knit or crocheted: $351.58 million
Pharmaceutical products: $316.05 million
Rubbers: $310.42 million
Articles of leather, animal gut, harness, travel good: $281.66 million
German exports to India amounted to $13.3 billion or 2.17% of India's overall imports in 2019. The 10 major commodities exported from Germany to India were:[46][47]
Optical, photo, technical, medical apparatus: $1.22 billion
Plastics: $635.46 million
Organic chemicals: $590.91 million
Vehicles other than railway, tramway: $513.42 million
Miscellaneous chemical products: $469.05 million
Iron and steel: $346.54 million
Pharmaceutical products: $329.49 million
Development cooperation
Germany has been providing development aid to India since the 1950s. With German support, the steel plant in Rourkela was built in the 1950s. Germany also helped with agricultural modernization and the Green Revolution in India.[48] Both countries cooperate in the Indo-German Energy Forum since 2006 for the funding of energy projects. Priority areas are Renewable energies and Energy efficiency.[49]
In 2022, Germany provided India with development aid amounting to almost 987 million euros.[50] Focus areas are poverty reduction and environmental protection. In 2022, Germany pledged 10 billion euros to India for the expansion of renewable energy by 2030.[51]
In May 2022 both countries agreed to work on development projects in third-world countries (Triangular Development Cooperation).[52]
Indians are one of the fastest growing groups of foreigners in Germany. The number of Indian migrants in Germany has risen sharply in recent years. In 2022, there were around 210,000 Indian citizens living in Germany, up from less than 100,000 in 2016.[53]
In the 1950s and 1960s, many Indian men came to Germany to study, most of them in engineering. Some of them returned to India, most of them stayed in Germany to work. In the late 1960s, many Catholic Malayali women from Kerala were brought to Germany by German Catholic institutions. They mostly worked as nurses in hospitals.[54]
At the beginning of the new millennium, the Schröder government introduced a special German Green Card for Indian IT workers. In 2022, the two countries concluded a migration agreement that makes it easier for Indian skilled workers to immigrate to Germany. The migration and mobility agreement was signed to make it easier for Indians to enter Germany to work, study or begin training in the country. Waiting times and the bureaucratic burden of visa applications will be reduced.[55][56]
The poor perception of India in Germany can be attributed in part to media coverage of women's rights in India.[citation needed] An example is the gang rape on a bus in New Delhi in 2012, which made international headlines at the time.[63]
This can be seen as the pretext for a case from 2015 in which Professor Annette Beck-Sickinger, the head of the biochemistry department at Leipzig University, caused a furore in India by rejecting an internship application from an Indian student as a retaliation against India's 'culture of rape' and alluding to the existence of a wider Europe-wide boycott of Indian male students.[64][65][66][67] The racial profiling, gender discrimination and xenophobic undertones of the incident placed the spotlight on prevalent institutional bias, increasing intolerance to foreigners and level of respect for the human rights of persons of color in Germany.[68][69][70][71] Indians have been deeply critical of the German institutional approach to the 2015 Leipzig University internship affair and the absence of sanctions against professor Annette Beck-Sickinger. The Leipzig University internship controversy, occurred just weeks before the April 2015 official visit to Germany by Indian Prime-Minister Narendra Modi at the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Despite this, the number of Indian students at German universities rose after 2015 and stood at 42,578 in 2023, overtaking Chinese students.[72]
BBC World Service Country Rating Poll data for Germany and India
According to a 2014 BBC World Service Poll, 32% of Indians view Germany's influence positively, 42% neutral and 26% expressing a negative view, while only 16% of Germans view India's influence positively, 16% neutral and 68% expressing a negative view. Both countries view of each other is at the lower end of the poll charts by the BBC.[73]
Results of 2014 BBC World Service poll. Views of India's influence by country[73] Sorted by positive - negative
According to the report published by Pew Research Center in August 2023, 47% Germans viewed India favourably with 38% viewing it as unfavourable and 15% voting as "don't know/refused". The favourable views on India have declined from 2007 when 60% of Germans surveyed viewed India favourably.[74]
Results of 2014 BBC World Service poll. Views of Germany's influence by country[75] Sorted by positive - negative
Official visits by German presidents and chancellors
In 2008, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an official visit to India that led to the signing of several agreements expanding bilateral co-operation in commerce, science, technology and defence.[30]
In 2013, German Chancellor Angela Merkel led a German delegation which included German Federal Ministers of Transport, Building & Urban Development, Interior, Defence, Education & Research, Parliamentary State Secretary for Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear safety; to the Second India-Germany Intergovernmental Consultations in New Delhi.
On 4 October 2015, German ChancellorAngela Merkel travelled to India for the Third Indo-German Inter-Governmental Consultations [76][77][78][79][80][81] accompanied by several members of her government (Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Science & Technology Minister Johanna Wanka, Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Müller, Food and Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt) and a contingent of business leaders. Merkel and her German delegation travelled on a German military cargo plane (a LuftwaffeAirbus A310 military transport aircraft called Kurt Schumacher) because the official government aircraft of the German Chancellor (Konrad Adenauer, a LuftwaffeAirbus A340-313 VIP) became unflightworthy after developing technical problems.[82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90] The visit, announced by the German embassy in India as a turning point in Indo-German relations,[91]
On 5 October 2015, Angela Merkel visited Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Raj Ghat and was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Presidential Palace prior to the Third Indo-German Inter-Governmental Consultations [92][93][94][95][96] which led to the signing of 18 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU).[97] Germany returned a 10th-century relic, a statue of the Hindu goddess Durga in her Mahishasuramardini avatar, which had been stolen from India.[98][99][100][101]
On 6 October 2015, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi held trade discussions on Indo-German science, technology & education cooperation with Angela Merkel in Bengaluru, India's aerospace and ICT hub, besides exploring opportunities to improve bilateral trade.[102][103][104][105] Merkel and Modi toured the vocational training facilities and innovation centre[106][107] of Robert Bosch. Bosch entered India in 1922, when Illies & Company set up a sales office in Calcutta. Currently, Bosch India has a turnover of over $3 billion and over 31,000 employees spread across 10 locations and 7 application development centers. 84% of Bosch India revenues come from its automotive business, with the remaining 16% split between its non-automotive businesses that include packaging, energy and building solutions, power tools and consumer retail Bosch India is listed on the Indian stock exchanges and has a market capitalization of over $12 billion. Angela Merkel's 3-day official visit to India concluded after the two leaders attended a business & technology forum hosted by NASSCOM and Fraunhofer Society[108][109] where Merkel said: "India needs jobs, Germany needs people and collaboration is crucial to meet the demographic needs of both countries",[110][111] and opined that the advantages for German companies in India are its huge market, a great growth potential and an impressive capacity for innovation.[112]
Foremost newspapers in both Germany and India focussed primarily on the trade and investment aspects of the visit.[113][114][115][116][117][118] Germany's State broadcaster Deutsche Welle eloquently captured the prevailing mood regarding the visit with its editorial titled:"A first step in the right direction – no more, no less".[119] Indian Express in an editorial titled "She came and went" pondered over the modest nature of agreements announced during the visit and placed the onus on India to raise its attractiveness as a partner through concrete socio-economic progress and improvements in bilateral relations in India's immediate neighbourhood.[120] The Hindu termed the visit as a dosis realitaet reality-check for Merkel and Modi.[121]
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited India on 25 February 2023. In a joint statement, both countries agreed to enhance their cooperation on innovation and technology.[52]
Embassies and Consulates
The German embassy in India is located in New Delhi. The embassy of India in Germany is located at Berlin. Consulate Generals of India are located in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich.
Diplomatic incidents
In March 2024, India summoned a German envoy to protest against his government's call on the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles to be applied in the arrest of Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal.[122]
^Urmila Goel: The Seventieth Anniversary of ‘John Matthew’. On ‘Indian’ Christians in Germany. In: Knut A. Jacobsen, Selva J. Raj: South Asian Christian Diaspora. Invisible Diaspora in Europe and North America. Ashgate, Aldershot u. a. 2008, ISBN 978-0-7546-6261-7, S. 57–74, hier S. 57.
^"BBC Poll: Attitudes towards Countries". GlobeScan.com. Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland. Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
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