External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his German counterpart Franz-Walter Steinmeier, at a meeting on Friday, have expressed satisfaction over the excellent relations between the two nations and reviewed the progress made by the "Common Action Plan" in which New Delhi and Berlin agreed to build up their strategic partnership during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Germany in April last year.

Both of them spoke of the importance they attached to the strategic partnership, which has given a new momentum to the cooperation between the two nations.

They shared the view that this partnership had found expression in a host of Indian events in Germany last year, including India's participation as "Partner Nation" at the

Hannover Fair and as the "Guest of Honour Nation" at the Frankfurt Book Fair, which made 2006 an informal "Year of India in Germany".

Their partnership had also resulted in greater contacts at the government level.

There have been positive developments in the economic field as well. The bilateral trade between the two countries had doubled within just three years to more than Euro 10.5 billion in 2006. India has become a focus of Germany's scientific and technological cooperation.

The two ministers used the occasion to prepare for the visit of Singh to Germany to attend the G-8 summit with five major threshold nations in the Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm aound mid-June.

Besides India, the G-5 includes China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico.