![\"Belgian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1200-675-27525045-thumbnail-16x9--bel-aspera.jpg\"\/ "\\"Belgium")
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Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’ (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
New Delhi: Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s visit to India comes as the India-Belgium relationship is gaining a broader strategic dimension amid growing geopolitical uncertainties, supply-chain disruptions and the contest for critical technologies.<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s position at the heart of Europe and its importance as a global logistics and port hub, apart from its role within the European Union, make it an increasingly important partner for India as New Delhi seeks to deepen its engagement with Europe.<\/p>\n
The visit provides an opportunity to expand a relationship traditionally driven by diamonds and trade into newer areas such as defence and security, technology, renewable energy, connectivity and resilient supply chains.<\/p>\n
The Belgian Prime Minister will be accompanied by Defence Minister Theo Francken.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the visit (from September 2 to 4), Prime Minister De Wever is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 3 to discuss the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, as well as regional and global issues of mutual interest,\u201d the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Monday. <\/p>\n
He is scheduled to travel to Mumbai, where he will engage with various stakeholders, including from the diamond, ports & logistics sectors, the MEA said. <\/p>\n
He will deliver a keynote address at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) business event, in the context of the India-EU Free Trade Agreement.<\/p>\n
The Ministry further stated that \u201cthe visit will provide an opportunity to further strengthen the India-Belgium partnership and advance cooperation in areas of mutual interest, including trade and investment, defence and security, technology, renewable energy, connectivity and people-to-people ties, as well as to further deepen India-EU and India-Europe engagement\u201d.<\/p>\n
Belgium may be a relatively small European country geographically, but its strategic importance to India is considerably larger than its size suggests. It is home to major European ports, logistics networks, financial institutions and industrial clusters and hosts the headquarters of the European Union and NATO. <\/p>\n
This gives Belgium an important role in India\u2019s wider engagement with European institutions.<\/p>\n
For New Delhi, deeper ties with Belgium can therefore serve a dual purpose: strengthening a bilateral partnership and creating additional avenues for engagement with the wider European strategic and economic ecosystem.<\/p>\n
This is particularly relevant following the conclusion of negotiations on the India-EU FTA in January 2026. The European Union is India\u2019s largest trading partner in goods, with bilateral goods trade reaching \u20ac120 billion in 2024. The agreement is expected to substantially expand market access and economic linkages once it enters into force.<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s own economic interests are closely tied to this emerging India-EU economic architecture. The European Commission estimates Belgian exports of goods and services to India at \u20ac4.58 billion in 2025 and the stock of bilateral Belgian FDI at \u20ac4.54 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n
Historically, diamonds and precious stones have dominated India-Belgium trade, largely because of the importance of Antwerp as a global diamond centre and India\u2019s major diamond-cutting and polishing industry.<\/p>\n
That relationship remains important, but both countries are now attempting to diversify their economic partnership into areas such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences, advanced manufacturing, green technologies, digital technologies, defence and renewable energy.<\/p>\n
The direction of travel was evident during the Belgian economic mission to India in March 2025, which brought more than 300 Belgian representatives from business and academia. Discussions covered areas ranging from greener steel and waste management to cancer treatment, defence and digital communications.<\/p>\n
For India, the objective is not merely to attract Belgian capital but also to integrate Belgian technology and companies into India\u2019s expanding manufacturing and innovation ecosystem. <\/p>\n
For Belgium, India\u2019s large and rapidly growing market provides an opportunity to diversify economic relationships at a time when European businesses are seeking alternatives and greater resilience in global supply chains.<\/p>\n
That De Wever will be accompanied by Defence Minister Francken points to the fact that one of the most significant changes in the relationship is the emergence of defence and security cooperation as a strategic pillar.<\/p>\n
During Defence Minister Rajnath Singh\u2019s meeting with Francken in March 2025, the two sides discussed defence engagements in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the maritime domain, as well as greater defence-industrial cooperation. They also explored establishing an institutionalised mechanism for defence cooperation.<\/p>\n
This has particular relevance given Europe\u2019s growing concern about maritime security, supply-chain vulnerabilities and the security of global trade routes. Belgium, as a major maritime and logistics hub, has a direct interest in maintaining freedom of navigation and secure sea lines of communication.<\/p>\n
For India, engagement with Belgium also fits into its broader effort to expand defence-industrial partnerships with European countries and encourage European companies to participate in Indian manufacturing and supply chains.<\/p>\n
The geopolitical environment is creating another important convergence.<\/p>\n
Europe is reassessing its security dependence, particularly amid uncertainty surrounding the future role of the US in European security, the continuing Russia-Ukraine conflict, China\u2019s growing global influence and instability in West Asia.<\/p>\n
Belgian officials have explicitly spoken about the need for greater European strategic autonomy. Belgium\u2019s foreign ministry has also described the changing balance of power and geopolitical uncertainty as reasons for Europe to deepen partnerships with countries such as India.<\/p>\n
For India, this creates an opportunity to engage Europe not merely as a trading bloc but as an increasingly important strategic actor.<\/p>\n
The India-EU relationship itself has moved in this direction. <\/p>\n
In January 2026, India and the EU signed a Security and Defence Partnership covering maritime security, cyber issues, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, hybrid threats, critical infrastructure, counterterrorism, space security and defence-industry cooperation.<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s importance in this context lies in its ability to contribute to \u2013 and influence \u2013 European positions on these issues.<\/p>\n
The reference in the ministry statement to defence and security cooperation is also significant because India\u2019s strategic interests increasingly extend into the Indo-Pacific, while European countries are paying greater attention to developments in the region.<\/p>\n
Belgium does not have the Indo-Pacific profile of France or the Netherlands, but it has important interests in maritime trade, logistics and supply-chain security. The country\u2019s ports are connected to European industrial and commercial networks, making the security of maritime routes from the Indian Ocean to Europe an issue of direct economic importance.<\/p>\n
The proposed expansion of cooperation into technology and renewable energy reflects another important shift.<\/p>\n
India is attempting to build domestic capabilities in semiconductors, electronics, advanced manufacturing, clean energy and other strategic technologies. Belgium, meanwhile, possesses specialised industrial and technological capabilities that could complement India\u2019s manufacturing and research ambitions.<\/p>\n
The two countries have already identified areas such as green hydrogen, nano-electronics, nuclear medicine, pharmaceuticals and R&D as potential areas of cooperation.<\/p>\n
In view of all this, the India-Belgium relationship has the potential to become considerably more strategic than its traditional economic profile suggests.<\/p>\n
De Wever\u2019s September visit could mark another step in that transformation \u2013 from an India-Belgium relationship built around diamonds and trade to a broader partnership anchored in defence, technology, connectivity, resilient supply chains and a shared interest in a more stable and multipolar international order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’ (Getty Images) New Delhi: Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s visit to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[76,7,18906,69,18908,18907],"class_list":["post-35224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-bart-de-wever","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-india","tag-europe","tag-india-belgium-ties","tag-modi"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117192123127225669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}