PM holds 'fruitful' talks with German Chancellor Scholz on sidelines of G20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held "fruitful" talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the sidelines of the G-20 summit here and the two leaders examined ways to expand bilateral economic engagement and defence collaboration.

This is the third time that Modi and Scholz have met this year.

In a tweet, Modi said he was "delighted" to meet the German Chancellor.

"Delighted to meet Chancellor Scholz. This is our third meeting this year and we built on the strong ground covered during the Inter Governmental Consultations held earlier. We discussed ways to boost economic ties, defence collaboration and other important issues," he tweeted.

The Prime Minister's Office described the talks as "fruitful".

"A fruitful meeting between PM @narendramodi and Chancellor Scholz was held on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Bali. The talks covered different subjects aimed at furthering India-Germany friendship, particularly in key areas such as trade, finance and security," PMO India tweeted.

In 2021, India and Germany commemorated 70 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations and have been strategic partners since 2000.

Germany is India's largest trading partner in Europe with a bilateral trade of over USD 21 billion.