Germany seeks deeper ties with India, wants IPR protected

Pitching for deeper bilateral ties, Germany today said India has "enormous" investment potential for which "right" conditions have to be created and stressed on legal protection for Intellectual Property Rights as a key to long-term engagement in the country.
Newly-appointed German Ambassador Martin Ney said his country was very keen on expanding trade coopration with India and expressed hope that both sides will be able to firm up a number of agreements during Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit here in October.
"The potential in this country is enoromous but the investment conditions have to be right and their legal clarity, legal protection of intellectual property rights is an important element for investor to come and engage long term in India," Ney told reporters.

Asked about Merkel's upcoming visit here, he said, "We are quite optimistic to sign quite a substantial number of cooperative agreements."
The envoy said CEOs of top German companies are quite upbeat about India as they were looking at opportunities in the country in diverse sectors. He said Germany was keen to actively participate in the Clean Ganga as well as smart cities projects.
"I believe, India is in an interesting phase. Indian is in a crucial phase. It overhauls its economy. It reinvigorates its international engagements in order to harness its full potential as a rising power in a multipolar world," he said.

Germany is India's largest trading partner in the EU and one of the top ten global trading partners. The overall exchange of goods and services between the two countries was valued at around around 15.96 billion euros last year.

When asked whether Europe-backed Eurofighter, which is now part of the Airbus group, was still interested in offering multi-role combat aircraft to India, he called it a "thing of the past".
"The Airbus group has much more broader range of products in military as well as civil aviation. I think the Airbus group is doing very successful business in India.
"The contract for 250 planes with Indigo is extremely encouraging. They are ready to engage in Make in India projects, including transfer of technology, if conditions are right," he said.

The envoy said Germany was keen to expand bilateral defence ties and that German companies would be interested in supplying submarines to India.
Asked about the sticky German language issue, he said both the countries are working on a "joint declaration" to promote each other's language.