Trade boost on agenda for Modi-merkel meet
NEWDELHI:MEASURES to boost trade and investment and cooperation in new areas such as artificial intelligence are expected to be on the agenda during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Nov 1.
Merkel will arrive in India on October 31 for the day-long visit at Modi’s invitation. She will be accompanied by several ministers and state secretaries of the German government. The two leaders will jointly chair the fifth biennial inter-governmental consultations.
They will also have a separate engagement with CEOS and business leaders of both sides. Merkel will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind.
As part of the inter-governmental consultations, Indian ministers and their German counterparts will hold initial discussions in their respective areas, and the outcome of these talks will be reported at the meet co-chaired by Modi and Merkel.
During the consultations, the two sides will discuss ways to deepen cooperation in traditional sectors such as transport, skill development and energy, and explore possibilities for working together in new areas such as artificial intelligence and green urban mobility, the external affairs ministry said on Friday.
Other issues that are expected to be on the agenda are defence and security, renewable energy, and water and waste management. Regional and global matters, including the situation in Afghanistan, are also expected to figure in the discussions between the two leaders.
NEW DELHI: Pakistan is the “contemporary epicentre” of terrorism and must give up its policy of cross-border terrorism against its neighbours to earn the confidence of the world community, India’s vice president M Venkaiah Naidu said on Friday.
Naidu made the remarks while addressing the 18th summit of the Non-aligned Movement in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku. The vice president is representing India at the summit after Prime Minister Narendra Modi opted to skip the meeting.
Relations between India and Pakistan have plummeted since February, when Pakistan-based Jaish-e-mohammed carried out a suicide attack at Pulwama, and hit a fresh low after New Delhi scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in August.
Describing terrorism as the
“single most destructive threat” to world peace and security, Naidu said Pakistan is its “contemporary epicentre”.
There is “deep concern” in the larger region for the behaviour of Pakistan, which “clearly needs to do much more to earn the confidence of the international community”, he said. “It must decisively abjure terrorism – for its own good, for that of its neighbours and for the good of the world,” he added.
Naidu called on India’s partners in NAM to forge a united front against terror and to show a clear commitment to “zero tolerance” for the menace.
“The only way to fight menace is to strengthen and implement, without exception, all existing international laws and mechanisms to combat terrorists and their enablers...,” he said.