Berlin: Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has arrived in Germany to enhance defence cooperation between the two countries. Both countries are scheduled to sign a landmark defence cooperation agreement.
The minister, accompanied by top defence research scientists and military officers, will be meeting his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung in Berlin.
Mukherjee is also expected to pay homage to Indian soldiers who died as prisoners during World War I in Halbmond and Windberg Prisoner of War Camps near Zossen.
He will also hold talks with German Minister for Economics and Technology Michael Gloss.
India has become a reliable partner for German firms in recent years and an increasingly important customer for German goods such as machinery and equipment.
German engineering companies had sold goods worth €1.5 billion to India in 2005 and exports there had surged 137 per cent since 1999. Germany is importing an increasing amount of machinery from India.
Mukherjee had earlier visited Paris, where he met his French counterpart Michele Alliot-Marie and discussed ways to enhance Indo-French defence cooperation, the Iran nuclear programme and the situation in Lebanon and Afghanistan, besides other bilateral issues.
India, however, failed to sign a crucial agreement with France for the transfer of technology for production of cruise missiles. Had the deal been worked out, it would have facilitated the transfer of critical technology for sub-systems of India's planned indigenous missile programme.
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