<p>Koehler began the official leg of his week-long visit to India Tuesday with a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. <br /><br />He arrived here Monday night on a multi-city tour, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. It is the first visit by a German president to India in the last seven years. <br /><br />The two leaders discussed proposed pacts on counter-terror cooperation and a framework agreement on economic and technological cooperation involving $500 million and decided to finalise them in the coming months. <br /><br />The security pact envisages creating a legal basis and framework for the training of Indians by anti-terror specialists in Germany. The home ministry is examining a draft of the pact sent by German officials. <br /><br />There was a meeting of minds between the two leaders with considerable expertise in economic issues on the global financial crisis and the need for sustained regulation of capital markets. <br /><br />Manmohan Singh, an economist by training and a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is credited with opening India's overregulated economy in the 1990s when he was finance minister. <br /><br />Koehler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), is well versed in issues of global financial governance. <br /><br />The president backed the accommodation of major emerging economies like India in key global financial institutions. <br /><br />Germany is India's biggest trade partner in the EU with bilateral trade estimated at over $20 billion. <br /></p>
<p>Koehler began the official leg of his week-long visit to India Tuesday with a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. <br /><br />He arrived here Monday night on a multi-city tour, including New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. It is the first visit by a German president to India in the last seven years. <br /><br />The two leaders discussed proposed pacts on counter-terror cooperation and a framework agreement on economic and technological cooperation involving $500 million and decided to finalise them in the coming months. <br /><br />The security pact envisages creating a legal basis and framework for the training of Indians by anti-terror specialists in Germany. The home ministry is examining a draft of the pact sent by German officials. <br /><br />There was a meeting of minds between the two leaders with considerable expertise in economic issues on the global financial crisis and the need for sustained regulation of capital markets. <br /><br />Manmohan Singh, an economist by training and a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, is credited with opening India's overregulated economy in the 1990s when he was finance minister. <br /><br />Koehler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), is well versed in issues of global financial governance. <br /><br />The president backed the accommodation of major emerging economies like India in key global financial institutions. <br /><br />Germany is India's biggest trade partner in the EU with bilateral trade estimated at over $20 billion. <br /></p>
