German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged 10 billion euros ($ 10.51 billion) to help India achieve its climate goals after meeting with its Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin on Monday, but leaders remained divided over their stand on the war. -Ukraine.
In a statement sent to the media, Scholz highlighted similar international goals such as the fight against climate change and the importance of cooperation between democratically elected nations.
However, his comments on the Russian invasion of Ukraine were contrary to Modi’s, who called for an end to the fighting but opposed western calls to criticize the Kremlin’s action, which he described as “a special military operation”.
After a week of agreeing to send heavy weapons to Ukraine to support its war effort, Scholz again called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops.
Modi, whose government buys most of the military supplies in Russia, said the dialogue was the only way to reach a solution. “We believe that no one will win this battle, everyone will be defeated. We are on the verge of peace, ”said Modi, who has traveled to Europe for Denmark and France.
Modi, who has not held a press conference in India since becoming prime minister in 2014, did not answer questions after reading the prepared statements.
His visit comes days after Scholz’s first trip to Asia, where, leaving his predecessors, he traveled to Japan and not China as Germany’s foreign policy shifts to a focus on strengthening coalitions and democratic alliances.
Germany also wants to sever its trade ties with Asia in order to lower its confidence in China, which it has seen as a strategic rival.
German-India trade, the world’s second-largest population with about 1.4 billion people, was less than 10% of its trade with China by 2021.
India is one of the countries visited by Germany to attend the G7 summit in June, a German government spokesman said earlier on Monday.
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