Berlin sees a friend in Delhi, says German government official Flasbarth
Germany
State Secretary of the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Jochen Flasbarth has said that Berlin sees a friend in New Delhi and is very hopeful about upcoming visit of PM Modi to Germany. In response to question of WION's Principal Diplomatic Correspondent Sidhant Sibal, Flasbarth said, "All our partners, for sure including India can trust that will continue with a very intense bilateral and multilateral cooperation.".
State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth was on a 2-day India visit from Thursday to Friday (April 21-22). During the visit he called on Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla and held talks with officials from India's environment, power, renewable and coal ministry. His visit comes ahead of PM Modi's visit to Germany in the first week of May.
WION: How has been your India visit?
Jochen Flasbarth: I am not starting at zero. Lot of collaboration and contact with my Indian counterpart in the past. Therefore, it was very easy. we are very frank and very focused on solution. On energy, climate, sustainable development, (we) had fruitful discussion.
WION: Your visit precedes the visit of PM Modi to Germany next week. How significant is your visit in the light of that?
Jochen Flasbarth: I don't want to overestimate my visit to Delhi but to get good results we need to talk between the ministries, different areas of common interest and politics and Ofcourse green transition, climate and energy transition but also sustainable development, areas I know are close to your prime minister and same for German Chancellor and I hope, my talks with colleagues will be helpful.
WION: How will two countries engage, now that a new government is in Germany?. PM Modi and Ms Merkel were close. Can you talk a little bit on how new German establishment will have the talks?
Jochen Flasbarth: All our partners, for sure including India can trust that we will continue with a very intense bilateral and multilateral cooperation. I think, there was a very driven govt in Germany in the past with regard to our partners and it will be even more in the case of new govt. It is absolute internationally committed and it's multilateral and it knows where our friends and partners are sitting, and one place is New Delhi.