German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi wave before their meeting at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi on February 25, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

NEW DELHI/BERLIN - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday said he wanted to deepen his nation's relationship with India ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

"India and Germany have very good relations and want to deepen them. That will be the topic of our talks and, importantly, peace in the world," Scholz said on Twitter.

Some 1,800 German companies are present in India. Scholz is travelling with a business delegation in a hope of growing that number, with a focus on investment in green technology

Scholz, meeting Modi for the fourth time, landed in India a day after the first anniversary of the Ukraine conflict. Scholz is also set to push hard for a $5.2 billion deal to sell India six conventional submarines.

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While one of the stated goals of the lightning trip is to improve economic ties, officials are mindful of the need to press what will soon be the world's most populous country into opposing Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, even if a severing of India's economic ties with Moscow is not on the table.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has not openly criticized Moscow for the crisis and instead called for dialogue and diplomacy to end the conflict. India has also sharply raised its purchases of oil from Russia, its biggest supplier of defense hardware, although prices have fallen.

Many in the Global South see Western complaints about the Ukraine conflict as hypocrisy, given their long history of military interventions around the world, and fear disrupted supply chains and inflation will cause hunger and famine.

Scholz last met Modi at a June summit of the Group of Seven industrial powers, to which he invited the Indian leader.

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Some 1,800 German companies are present in India. Scholz is travelling with a business delegation in a hope of growing that number, with a focus on investment in green technology.

Despite the interest, regulation and trade barriers make India a tough market for German companies to crack, as is shown by the absence of any of Germany's major carmakers from the accompanying delegation.