New Delhi, October 24 . German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will arrive in New Delhi on Thursday night for the seventh Intergovernmental Consultation (IGC). Senior ministers of his cabinet will also accompany him during the October 24-26 visit.
Scholz has previously visited India twice – a bilateral state visit in February 2023 last year and to attend the G-20 Leaders Summit in September 2023.
On Friday, the German Chancellor will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his Lok Kalyan Marg residence after which both the leaders will inaugurate and address the 18th Asia Pacific German Business Conference (APK 2024). The conference will be attended by around 650 top business leaders and CEOs from Germany, India and other countries.
The biennial event for business leaders, officials and political representatives from Germany and countries in the Indo-Pacific is expected to further boost trade and investment ties between the two countries.
This will be followed by a joint plenary session of all participants in the Government Consultations chaired by the heads of government. The IGC is a whole-of-government framework under which ministers from both sides discuss their respective sectors and report the outcome of their deliberations to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.
“The two leaders will hold bilateral talks to discuss enhancing security and defence cooperation, greater opportunities for talent movement, deeper economic cooperation, green and sustainable development partnership and cooperation in the field of emerging and strategic technologies. The discussions will also focus on important regional and global developments,” the Ministry of External Affairs said earlier this week.
The German Chancellor will then travel to Goa on Saturday, where the German naval frigate ‘Baden-Württemberg’ and the combat support ship ‘Frankfurt am Main’ will make a scheduled port stop as part of Germany’s Indo-Pacific deployment.