India has called for fighting terrorism on all fronts and not selectively. The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said this while reviewing security situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan with the visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who arrived in New Delhi Tuesday morning. Both the leaders held wide-ranging talks on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest. Addressing a joint press conference with Merkel after the talks, Dr. Singh said terrorism is a serious Global challenge, which has to be fought in a collective manner. He said, security situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, besides the situation in West Asia and North Africa and Libya also came up for discussion.

Prime Minister reiterated India’s desire for collaboration with Germany in areas of infrastructure, high technology, energy and applied sciences. He expressed hope that both the sides will achieve the trade target of 20 billion euros by 2012. Dr Singh said, India offers a stable and friendly investment climate and a large market for German entrepreneurs.

After the talks, India and Germany signed four agreements for cooperation in vocational education, medical research, science and technology and nuclear physics.

Later, in reply to a query on the use of nuclear energy, Dr. Singh said every effort would be made to ensure that all safety norms and generation and utilisation of nuclear energy are world class. The prime minister said that the nuclear energy of the country today is three per cent of total energy generation .He said ,it has to be raised to 20,000 MW by the year 2020 from the current 5000 megawatt. He said if India has to meet the emission targets, the country will have to have a combination of nuclear energy and renewable energy sources.

On the selection of new IMF chief, the Prime Minister said he did not discuss the issue with Dr. Merkel but favoured the best available person regardless of nationality.

While being queried about their discussions on UNSC reforms, Dr. Singh said both India and Germany were on the same page on the issue and were of the opinion that the body should reflect the contemporary reality of the world. Dr. Singh supported German Chancellor’s views on inclusion of both the countries in the expanded UN Security Council.

In her remarks, Merkel asserted Germany’s full support to India’s infrastructure development particularly in the areas of railways and urban development. She said that her country will extend all help to India in the development of nuclear energy to address global concerns on climate change