Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will discuss the entire range of bilateral strategic and defence issues with Germany and Sweden respectively during her four-day two-nation tour starting February 11.
Incidentally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid an official visit to the two countries in April last year to hold high level discussions especially focussing on strategic and defence relations.
During her visit to Sweden, the defence minister will explore possibilities of industries from there participating in the “‘Make In India’’ programme especially in the field of defence manufacturing. Sweden’s fighter jet Gripen is in the race for the 110-fighter jet proposed deal for the IAF costing more than ten billion dollars for which the global tender was floated last year, sources said here on Wednesday.
Sitharaman will hold wide ranging discussions with her Swedish counterparts and is also likely to visit some state of the art defence industries there, they added. In her talks with German leaders, the Defence Minister will discuss issues like terrorism, possibility of exchanges between officers at the military level and strategic matters.
Though India and Germany do not have much defence trade, the two sides may hold discussion about possible tie-up for manufacturing submarines as Germany three decades ago had helped India in manufacturing HDW submarines here.