New Delhi: German vice chancellor Robert Habeck said on Thursday, July 20, that his country does not support “decoupling” from China, but diversification and derisking are high priorities – as is the case for India. He said Germany and India want to strengthen economic cooperation, including creating a “common trade sphere”, which could be the answer to reducing dependence on one country.Habeck was speaking on the sidelines of the Indo-German Business Forum and is in India for a three-day visit. He later met external affairs minister S. Jaishankar and is scheduled to meet commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal.Jaishankar tweeted that he had a “productive discussion on the many new opportunities of India-Germany cooperation that a rising India presents”. The two ministers also exchanged perspectives on the conflict in Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific situation, he said.According to The Hindu, Habeck – who is also the German federal minister for economic affairs and climate action – said that his country’s partnership with China is a “complicated one”. Beijing is Berlin’s biggest trading partner and “a lot of companies, German, European companies have invested in China” he said. Therefore, Germany cannot decouple from China and “nobody wants that” but “de-risking, diversification is of the highest importance”, he said.He said being dependent on “only one market” could be a risk, especially if countries see that economic issues are not politically neutral, Habeck said according to Economic Times.As part of diversification, partnerships like the Indo-German partnership will become “more and more important”, the vice-chancellor said.“My understanding also from the talks ahead with the Indian partners is, that goes the same for India. So there is a mutual interest from the German side and the Indian side to strengthen our cooperation and bringing more companies together, bringing more investments, creating a common trade sphere also as an answer that we are not becoming too dependent on only one country and from the German side that is also China,” he was quoted as saying by ET.The minister also discussed the Ukraine war, urging democracies to “abide by the sanctions imposed on Russia”, according to The Hindu.“The Russian aggression on Ukraine is unprecedented. ..We answered with sanctions against it and also with military support for Ukraine. The sanction system means that we have not bent the trade of oil but there is a price cap on it. That means that you are allowed to buy crude oil and recognise that it’s okay. But making money out of it, bringing more money to Russia using this sanction system to benefit from it is not the idea of it,” he said.Ever since the war began in February 2022, India has been one of the largest purchasers of Russian crude. Several companies have also sold refined crude to European nations at a profit. India has defended these purchases, saying it protects the country’s energy security.The German vice-chancellor also said that though “Europe is a little bit away from Asia”, the conflict is of such importance that “all democracies” should to be clear in language and political position that this is not acceptable, according to ET.Habeck described the ongoing negotiation between India and the European Union (EU) over a free trade agreement as “difficult”. The economic traditions and expectations of India and the EU are different, he said. “One side is expecting more openness and intellectual property and the other side is expecting more market access,” he said, according to The Hindu.According to ET, he refused to comment on the ethnic clashes in Manipur, saying, “This is not on the table for me.”Habeck’s reference to India’s purchase of Russian crude was not well received by Moscow’s envoy in India Denis Alipov. “Noted reports that one of the goals of German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck’s visit to India is to discuss Russia-India cooperation. He’d do better to concentrate on India-Germany relations instead as he’s supposed,” he tweeted.Alipov said that “Germany has abandoned independent position on security issues in Europe making its voice in the Ukrainian conflict irrelevant.”