Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, June 6: With a focus on ways to strengthen bilateral defence and strategic ties, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his German counterpart Boris Pistorius conducted extensive discussions on Tuesday.
People acquainted with the meeting’s agenda suggested that a significant topic of discussion would be defence industrial cooperation prior to the talks.
The German defence minister is in India for four days.
According to the aforementioned sources, it is anticipated that discussions between the two defence ministers will centre on India’s proposal to purchase six stealth conventional submarines for about Rs 43,000 crore.
ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), a company based in Germany, is one of the bidders for the contract.
Pistorius stated to Germany’s state-owned network DW that it is not in Germany’s best interest for India to continue to rely on Russian armaments before departing from Indonesia for India.
When asked about India’s reliance on Russian weapons, Pistorius responded, “It is not up to Germany to change that on our own”. “This is an issue we have to solve jointly with other partners. But of course, we can’t have an interest in the long run that India is so dependent on Russia’s delivery of weapons or other materials,” he said.
He said, “I want to send a signal that we are willing to support our partners, our reliable partners like Indonesia, like India”.
