NEW DELHI: India is likely to get a formal invite to attend the G7 summit when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Berlin next week.
"I am optimistic of India being invited for the G7, but the formal invite for the same will come from our Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, when he meets with PM Modi in Berlin on Monday," Germany’s Minister of State, Dr Tobias Lindner, told The New Indian Express.
Germany is looking at furthering its bilateral relations with India during the upcoming visit of PM Modi.
"No major problem in the world can be solved without India, it is that significant globally. We in Germany would further strengthen our bilateral ties with India as Indo-Pacific is becoming a priority for us," Dr Lindner said.
Germany has been focusing on renewables and technology transfer to India in that segment is likely to be taken up during the bilateral discussions. India and Germany are partners for developing green hydrogen.
"We in Germany have been focusing on being independent of fossil fuels and have been working on expanding usage of renewables," he added.
Since the conflict in Ukraine, gas supplies have been impacted in Germany, specially since the Nordstream 2 decided not to take gas from Russia. Germany is now in the process of setting up LNG terminals. Shifting from gas for which a pipeline was already in place to LNG terminals will take some time.
Meanwhile, Dr Lindner says the sanctions imposed in the aftermath of the conflict should be sustainable.
Talking on the situation in India’s neighbourhood, Dr Lindner said like India they too had not recognised the Taliban. However, they were extending humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. They are even ready to pay for school teachers in Afghanistan but on the condition that girls would be allowed to attend school.
He also made a reference to the India-China border issue. "We would not want to ignore any conflicts around the globe. We would expect China to uphold the international rules based order," Dr Lindner added.