India and Germany sign landmark agreement on defence cooperation
INDO-GERMAN RELATIONSHIP TO GRADUATE FROM BUYER-SELLER TO PARTNERSHIPS: PRANAB MUKHERJEE
India and Germany signed a landmark agreement last night to change the contour of relationship from a ‘buyer-seller’ to that of partners. Shortly after signing the agreement with his German Counterpart Dr. Franz Josef Jung in Berlin, the Defence Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee expressed confidence that “the relationship will graduate from the level of buyer-seller relationship to that of co-production, joint development of products and transfer of technology”.
The Agreement aims to establish a strategic dialogue for the benefit of he Armed Forces at the level of Defence Secretaries. Conscious of ‘the significance of international military cooperation as an important element of security’, this group called the India- Germany High Defence Committee (HDC), will meet once a year, alternately, in India and Germany. Under the Under the HDC, the two countries will form three sub- groups to focus on Strategic Defence Cooperation, Defence Technical cooperation and Military to Military Cooperation.
The Strategic Defence Cooperation subgroup will be headed by Joint Secretary level officials of the two countries and will deal with subject areas e.g., security and defence policy, leadership concepts, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance.
The Defence Technical cooperation sub-group will look at issues such as defence technology cooperation, defence business cooperation, exhange of information on armament procurement projects, including project related development and exchange of information on defence technological research and technology in both countries.
The Military-to-military cooperation sub-group will deal with issues such as standard and advanced training of military and civilian members of the armed forces, organizational structure of the armed forces, maintenance of armed forces in peace time, military medicine, military geo-information affairs, environmental protection in the armed forces, deployment of the armed forces within the UN Framework, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. The co-chairs of the three sub-groups will report to the HDC on their deliberations and bilateral work programme for approval.
Shri Mukherjee said that “ with the signing of the MoU and establishment of High Defence Committee, a regular institutional mechanism is established”. Describing Germany as a “trusted and valued friend of India”, the Defence Minister said that the already existing high degree of economic and commercial cooperation with Berlin has now been extended to the areas of defence and security.
Earlier in the day, Shri Mukherjee took a walk through the German Parliament building, the Reichstag and watched the proceedings of the Bundestag which was incidentally discussing the defence budget for the year.
The German term Reichstag refers to the building, while the term Bundestag refers to the institution. The Reichstag building in Berlin was constructed to house the Reichstag, the original parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933. The Reichstag as a parliament dates back to the Holy Roman Empire and ceased to act as a true parliament in the years of Nazi Germany (1933-1945). It again became the seat of the German parliament in 1999 after a reconstruction led by internationally renowned architect Norman Foster.
Shri Mukherjee watched the proceedings of the House for about half an hour. When the Speaker of the House announced the presence of the Defence Minister in the visitors’ gallery, there was thunderous applause from the members.
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SK
(Release ID :20540)