‘Very bullish on India’: Airbus Chairman Rene Obermann calls India long-term strategic partner

Obermann said he is "very bullish on India" while speaking at the Berlin Global Dialogue, reported Business Today.

"I'm very bullish on India. I think the ambition which I sensed - I'll tell you - the ambition on the entrepreneurial level was beyond what I heard everywhere in the world before," Obermann said. "They're coming from a position where there's a lot to catch up still if you think about GDP per capita, etc., but everyone I spoke to had massive ambition and excellent education and super good engineering."

Recounting his recent visit to India, Airbus Executive Thomas Obermann said the experience left a lasting impact on him.

“I was in India, I spent one week there, and I was completely blown away by the level of excellence, engineering excellence, quality in India. For Airbus, India is a strategic long-term partner,” he said.

Beyond cost advantage

Obermann noted that Airbus’s engagement with India goes beyond seeking cost efficiencies and instead centres on technological collaboration.

“Part of the discussions was not only how can you make things cheaper for us, but actually how can we make things better by leveraging the capabilities of Indian technology and tech talents there. It was part of the discussions on how to evolve the partnership with India,” he added.

Airbus champions ‘local for local’ manufacturing

Highlighting Airbus’s global footprint, Obermann said the company follows a “local for local” approach in manufacturing and co-development.

“We have European roots, but we are a global company and we do a lot of local for local. We support India in its Make in India strategy. We try to partner very closely with local supply chains—not only suppliers but co-developers of components. We even build some planes like the C295 in India. We have a final assembly line. We do the same in China. We produce in the US. Otherwise, this new world order is against us,” he said.

Obermann said economic decoupling is unrealistic in today’s interconnected world, where global supply chains are deeply linked.

He stressed the need for balance in aerospace production, suggesting industries should build leverage and create redundancy in supply chains without assuming long-term stability.

Europe-India ties gaining new momentum

Obermann also pointed out that recent geopolitical changes have opened new doors for collaboration between Europe and India.

“The situation offers unique opportunities for Europe. In the past, India never looked at Europe as a whole—it looked at individual countries. Now Europe as a whole has a voice, and that was largely driven by the latest geopolitical developments,” he said.