Belgian PM De Wever arrives in India to deepen trade, defence and technology ties

India and Belgium are looking to give a strategic push to their economic partnership, with trade, investment, defence, technology and maritime cooperation set to figure prominently during Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s three-day visit to India beginning Wednesday.

De Wever, who took office in February 2025, is visiting India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is accompanied by Belgium’s Defence and Foreign Trade Minister Theo Francken, besides a high-level delegation of officials and business leaders. His visit is the first by a Belgian Prime Minister to India in two decades.

The visit comes at a time when bilateral economic engagement is gaining momentum. Two-way trade between India and Belgium stood at $13.01 billion in 2025-26, while Belgian foreign direct investment into India totalled about $4.2 billion between April 2000 and December 2025.

Diamonds remain a key component of the commercial relationship, with Antwerp being one of the world’s major diamond trading hubs and India a major centre for cutting and polishing. De Wever is scheduled to travel to Mumbai on September 4 and visit the Bharat Diamond Bourse, highlighting the importance attached to the sector and scope for expanding cooperation.

The two sides are also expected to build on the outcomes of the Belgian Economic Mission led by Princess Astrid in March 2025, which brought 338 participants from companies, chambers of commerce, academia and public institutions and resulted in 38 memoranda of understanding.

The presence of Francken, who holds both the defence and foreign trade portfolios, along with Belgian defence industry representatives, is particularly significant as defence cooperation emerges as a new area of bilateral engagement. Belgium’s appointment of a Defence Attaché in New Delhi has also signalled its intention to strengthen defence and security ties and create greater links between the two countries’ defence industrial ecosystems.

Beyond traditional economic ties, the two countries are looking to expand cooperation in technology, innovation, clean energy and infrastructure. Belgian companies already have a growing footprint in India. Belgian space company AMOS was involved in the development of the liquid mirror telescope inaugurated at ARIES, Nainital, in 2023.

In clean energy, Belgian engineering group John Cockerill is building a large electrolyser manufacturing facility in Kakinada, with an expected capacity of 2 GW, underlining the potential for co-operation in green hydrogen and other clean technologies.

Ports, shipping and supply-chain resilience are another emerging area. Belgium’s position as a major European maritime and logistics hub offers scope for greater cooperation with India on connectivity and port-led trade. An existing memorandum between India’s Ministry of Shipping and the Antwerp Port Authority provides for training of Indian port officials.

The political relationship has also acquired a new institutional framework with the launch of the `India-Belgium Ministerial-level Strategic Dialogue’ in July. The inaugural dialogue was held in Brussels on July 15 and co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot