New Delhi: Amid national capital's deteriorated air quality levels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel landed here late on Thursday, keeping the German Embassy on toes as they arranged anti-pollution masks for the delegation and made arrangements for air purifiers in hotel suites.
Merkel is scheduled to begin her engagements with a meeting with women leaders from India at 10am at The Oberoi Hotel on Friday. At 11:30am, she will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a short meeting of about 15 minutes, after which the inter-governmental consultations between the two sides will begin.
The two leaders will hold bilateral talks on wide-ranging issues, including security cooperation, cooperation on economic and trade issues.
They are expected to sign around 20 agreements. The two sides will also look at enhancing people-to-people contact and cooperate in the field of agriculture. Around 1 pm, both sides will likely sign a slew of agreements and issue joint press statements at Hyderabad House.
After a flurry of meetings with the business community and calling on President Ram Nath Kovind, Merkel will meet PM Modi at his residence, 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, in a restricted meeting.
The German Chancellor has set aside all of Saturday to meet the business community. She will also visit a German company based in Gurugram as well as the Dwarka sector 21 metro station, before leaving for Germany around 12:15 am.
“At the invitation of the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, will visit India on 01 November 2019 for the Fifth Biennial Inter Governmental Consultations (IGC). The Chancellor will be accompanied by several Ministers and State Secretaries of the Federal Government, as well as a high-powered business delegation. Under the IGC format, the counterpart Ministers from both countries will hold initial discussions in their respective areas of responsibility. The outcome of these discussions will be reported on at the IGC Co-Chaired by the Prime Minister and the Federal Chancellor of Germany,” a statement from the MEA said.
Giving details of what both sides are likely to talk about, the statement added, “India and Germany have established a Strategic Partnership that is characterized by a high degree of trust and mutual understanding. The two Leaders have regularly interacted on the sidelines of multilateral meetings. Germany is a leading trade and investment partner. During the IGC, the two sides will discuss the deepening of cooperation in traditional sectors such as transport, skill development and energy, and explore possibilities for cooperation in newer areas like green urban mobility, AI, etc. The two Leaders will also exchange views on regional and global matters of mutual interest.”
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