New Delhi, Sep 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) The visit of Bart De Wever, Prime Minister of Belgium, to India provides new momentum to bilateral ties and also the broader India-European Union (EU) partnership, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday.
PM Wever is currently on an official visit to India from September 2 to 4.
“This visit comes at a time when our bilateral relationship is on an upward trajectory following the inaugural India-Belgium strategic dialogue held in Brussels in July this year. It also builds on the strong momentum,” MEA Secretary (West) Sibi George said at a special media briefing on the visit of Belgian PM.
The senior diplomat said that the visit also comes at an important moment in India-EU relations, following the successful conclusion of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations -- ‘the mother of all deals’ -- in January.
“The growing India-EU strategic partnership has given a fresh fresh momentum to our engagement with Europe. This visit significantly contributes to our border engagement with the European Union,” Secretary George highlighted.
The Prime Minister of Belgium, who also held extensive discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House on Thursday, is accompanied by the Belgian Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade, Theo Francken.
“During their restricted and delegation-level meetings. The two leaders reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations. They recalled that the India-Belgium partnership has flourished in recent years on the foundations of shared democratic values, mutual trust, economic complementarities, and strong people-to-people connect. They expressed their commitment to further expanding and deepening this multifaceted relationship and discussed various initiatives to take the relationship forward,” Secretary George noted.
The two governments signed a letter of intent on defence cooperation providing a formal institutional basis to the growing defence relationship.
In a major step, the Belgian Security and Defence Industry Association and the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers of India have entered into an institutional arrangement. A number of defence and industrial collaborations between defence industries of the two sides were also finalised.
India also announced the decision to appoint a defence attache to Brussels, complementing Belgium's placing a defence attache in New Delhi earlier this year.
“We will see significant progress in defence engagement, including in defence production between the two countries. Leveraging Belgian technology together with India's skill and scale,” Secretary George noted.
On the broader security relationship, the two sides concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Belgian Federal Police on Cooperation Against Transnational Organised Crime and Cybercrime.
The two sides also concluded an MoU on cooperation in diplomatic training between the foreign service institutes of the two countries with reference to the growing India-EU partnership.
Belgium condemned the terrorist attack on innocent civilians in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, India in April 2025.
Both leaders underscored their commitment to a comprehensive global approach to counter-terrorism and affirmed that terrorism in any form and manifestation anywhere could never be justified, and called for the perpetrators to be held accountable in accordance with international law.
Belgium reaffirmed its support for India's candidature for permanent membership of the reformed and expanded United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
This visit is significant as it provides new momentum for India-Belgium bilateral relations and also for the broader India-EU partnership," Secretary George highlighted.
–IANS
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Source: IANS
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