India and Germany on February 18, 2026, held an extensive bilateral meeting to advance cooperation in telecommunications and digital transformation, agreeing to pursue a more structured, implementation-focused partnership across next-generation connectivity, secure networks and digital governance.
The meeting at Sanchar Bhawan was held between Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Communications and Development of the North Eastern Region, and Karsten Wildberger, Federal Minister for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation of the Federal Republic of Germany. The discussions reflected mutual respect for each other’s technological capabilities, with both ministers agreeing that the current phase of global digital transition presents a timely opportunity for deeper Indo-German collaboration.
Significance of the January Joint Declaration of Intent
The talks assumed added importance as they followed the signing of the Joint Declaration of Intent (JDI) on January 10, 2026, during the India–Germany Summit. The JDI provides a forward-looking and non-binding framework for structured cooperation in telecommunications and digital governance under the broader Indo-German Strategic Partnership.
Both sides described the JDI as a key milestone that reflects shared values of openness, trust, innovation and resilience in digital ecosystems. Officials noted that the declaration offers a flexible platform for policy dialogue, exchange of best practices, scientific and technical cooperation, and the development of joint work plans aimed at translating shared intent into concrete initiatives.
India’s digital scale and affordability highlighted
Minister Scindia stressed that the partnership must now move beyond broad statements of cooperation towards measurable and outcome-driven implementation. Outlining India’s digital transformation journey, he said the country today has over 1.23 billion telecom subscribers and nearly one billion internet users, making it one of the largest digital markets globally.
He highlighted that 5G coverage has reached around 99.9 per cent of India’s districts, supported by data tariffs averaging about USD 0.10 per GB, among the lowest in the world. According to the minister, this combination of scale, coverage and affordability has enabled inclusive connectivity and created significant opportunities for international collaboration.
Scindia also underlined India’s success in building digital public infrastructure, citing the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as a flagship example. UPI, he noted, is a fully indigenous digital stack that processes roughly 250 billion transactions annually and has been adopted by multiple partner countries, positioning India as a global reference point for interoperable and population-scale digital solutions.
Germany signals interest in advanced and secure technologies
The German minister expressed appreciation for India’s technological achievements and conveyed Germany’s strong interest in structured and forward-looking collaboration in advanced telecom systems, digital governance and secure networks. He shared Germany’s experience in quantum encryption and secure information transport, including a demonstration of quantum communication over a 35-kilometre link for 11 consecutive days, highlighting Germany’s progress in next-generation secure communications.
Wildberger emphasised that close and early engagement with India would be critical to fully harnessing the potential of 6G technologies, which are expected to underpin future digital economies and critical infrastructure worldwide.
Two-year work plan and early flagship initiatives
Both sides agreed on the early convening of the first high-level meeting under the JDI framework to finalise an initial two-year work plan. The proposed roadmap will identify priority focus areas, launch flagship collaborative initiatives and set clearly defined timelines, while also mapping key stakeholders responsible for delivery.
The ministers also agreed on the need for periodic virtual review meetings to ensure continuous monitoring and outcome-oriented implementation of agreed initiatives.
Focus on 5G-Advanced, 6G and resilient supply chains
India and Germany reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation across emerging and future domains, including 5G and 5G-Advanced, early engagement on 6G standardisation, network modernisation, trusted telecom architectures and supply-chain resilience. Discussions covered collaboration on secure and sovereign 6G networks, artificial intelligence at the edge, industry-grade network slicing, and scalable deployment models suited to large and diverse markets.
Both sides also emphasised the importance of coordinated engagement in international forums such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to promote interoperable, secure and globally harmonised telecom standards.
Research, innovation and Open RAN cooperation
Institutional collaboration between research and innovation ecosystems was identified as a central pillar of the partnership. The ministers noted Germany’s strong industry–academia model and agreed on the need for deeper, structured engagement between research institutions and industry stakeholders in both countries.
Ongoing cooperation between the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz Institute was acknowledged as a model for collaboration. Their work spans advanced telecom research and development, quantum communications, artificial intelligence and next-generation network technologies. Opportunities were also discussed in indigenous technology development, open-source innovation networks and Open RAN ecosystems.
ITU engagement and global digital governance
During the meeting, the Indian side sought Germany’s support for Ms. M. Revathi’s candidature for Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau at the ITU, for India’s re-election to the ITU Council for the 2027–2030 term, and for India’s proposal to host the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in 2030.
Both sides agreed that closer coordination at multilateral platforms would be essential to shaping the future of global digital governance.
Commitment to trusted and future-ready networks
Concluding the discussions, India and Germany reaffirmed their shared commitment to building trusted networks, resilient supply chains and future-ready digital infrastructure. The ministers agreed that sustained engagement under the Joint Declaration of Intent framework would be key to translating strategic alignment into long-term technological and economic outcomes for both countries.
