Rajnath Singh pitches for opportunities for German FDI in UP & TN defence industrial corridors

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday pitched for opportunities in the defence production sector, including possibilities for German investments in the two defence industrial corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, during his meeting with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius.

The two ministers reviewed the ongoing bilateral defence cooperation activities and explored ways to enhance the collaboration, particularly defence industrial partnership.

Singh highlighted the opportunities that have opened up in the defence production sector, according to a defence ministry statement. He suggested that India’s defence industry could participate in the supply chains of German defence industry and add value to the ecosystem, besides contributing to supply chain resilience, it said.


He stressed that India and Germany could build a more symbiotic relationship based on shared goals and complementarity of strength, namely skilled workforce and competitive costs from India and high technologies and investment from Germany, according to the official statement.

Senior defence ministry officials, including defence secretary Giridhar Aramane and chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan, participated in the delegation-level meeting. From the German side, state secretary from the ministry of defence Benedikt Zimmer, apart from senior officials and the German Ambassador to India, were present at the meet. This is the first visit of a German defence minister to India since 2015.

Pistorius also interacted with some Indian defence startups at IIT Delhi, in an event organised by Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX).

The German federal minister of defence arrived in India on Monday on a four-day visit. On Wednesday he is scheduled to visit the headquarters of Western Naval Command and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai.

Thyssenkrupp AG’s marine arm and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited are likely to jointly bid for an estimated $5.2 billion project to build six submarines for the Indian navy. This issue understandably figured in the talks between Singh and Pistorius. “We are talking about the six submarines. And the German defence industry, especially the manufacturers, has an excellent reputation. But, of course, there are competitors, and that’s no secret…We support the ‘Make in India’ principle favoured by India. We think that's right,” said Pistorius, according to the official statement.

The two ministers also discussed the situation in the Indo Pacific region, the Chinese approach to the Straits of Taiwan and, most important, the Straits of Malacca and the effects of shipping traffic on Indian waters, besides the Russia-Ukraine war.