‘Big German investments in India soon’

Phillipp Ackermann said companies like Siemens and Deutsche Bahn are interested in building semi-high speed rail tracks and that top German cabinet ministers are likely to visit India soon. Germany is serious about its Indo–Pacific policy and will deploy more naval ships in the region. He confirmed the two countries are in talks on a submarine deal. Edited excerpts:

What is the state of bilateral ties between India and Germany?

I think the India-Germany relationship is at an all-time high and what we see now is very intense and extremely fruitful cooperation in many areas. The proof of that is in my tenure of seven months. We have had the German foreign minister visit twice and the Chancellor once. I want to stress that this is not only because of the G-20, but because the new government really wants to reach out to India. We’ll have the economics minister and the minister of development cooperation coming. We might also have the defence minister coming. So the interest in India is very palpable.

Chancellor Scholz was in India in February with a business delegation. Could you give us a sense of the major sectors that interest German businesses?

The sheer fact that you have 12 CEOs of big German companies coming to India shows that there is huge interest. We had big shots like SAP and Siemens and ThyssenKrupp come here. A very important decision that had been taken during this visit was that the bi-annual conference of German business in Asia will be held in India in 2024.The last one was in Singapore and the one before that was in China. So I think this is a clear sign of interest in India.

On investment announcements, you can be prepared to see something in the automotive sector and in health, which will be quite big.

What plans do German firms have in the infrastructure sector ?

I think infrastructure is interesting for everybody. Railways infrastructure is an important focus for us. Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company, is now managing a train from Meerut to Delhi. I hope this train will be inaugurated very soon.

It’s a commuting train that allows one to travel from Meerut to Delhi in about half an hour. Siemens but also Deutsche Bahn are interested in semi high speed rail tracks. Although there is not a concrete plan on the table on this, it is something that many people will be thinking about.