Ahead of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to India next month, New Delhi and Berlin have decided to shore up cooperation in the areas of renewable energy, urban development, agroecology and mobility.

Ways to expand engagement in these key areas figured prominently at the development policy negotiations led by India’s Department for Economic Affairs and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, German officials said on Saturday.

Both sides agreed to continue their cooperation in the areas of renewable energy, urban development, mobility and agro-ecology in the coming years, they said.

The Indo-German cooperation is strategically guided by the “Partnership for Green and Sustainable Development”, which was established in 2022 following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Scholz.

“Germany and India share a long-standing, trusting and strategic partnership,” said Barbara Schafer, the head of the German delegation at the talks.

“This has been further demonstrated in 2024 by both sides. With the launch of the ‘India-Germany Platform for Investments in Renewable Energy Worldwide’,” she said.

The new initiative was launched on September 16 during the fourth RE-Invest in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar.

“With our commitments this year, Germany has made it clear that it reliably fulfils its international obligations,” Schafer explained.  The German official said it is important not only to make commitments but also to achieve concrete results.

“We have already succeeded in many areas in our partnership with India -- through Indo-German cooperation, 7,700 kilometres of modern transmission lines have been built and with German (co-)financing, metros in Mumbai, Surat and Ahmedabad have been constructed,” she said.