Mission to India: Belgian delegation meets Indian prime minister Modi
During its trade mission to India, the Belgian delegation met on Tuesday with the highest level of leadership: Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
Princess Astrid, Foreign minister Maxime Prévot, Defence minister Theo Francken, Flemish minister-president Matthias Diependaele and Belgian ambassador Didier Vanderhasselt were present at the meeting with the Indian leader. Originally scheduled for 30 minutes, the talks ended up lasting an hour.
Large delegation from tiny country
Modi was reportedly impressed by the size of the mission, which included more than 320 participants from tiny Belgium. A wide range of issues were discussed during the meeting, including labour migration, pharmaceuticals, defence, diamonds, space exploration and green energy.
India is the largest democracy in the world
"But we also wanted to make it clear that cooperation with India is not only B2B (business-to-business) but also G2G (government-to-government)," said Foreign minister Prévot. "It is also a diplomatic mission. After all, India is the largest democracy in the world".
Military cooperation
He also pointed out that the geopolitical landscape is evolving at a rapid pace. For this reason, it was agreed in the defence sector to set up a working group in India and Belgium to explore a structural framework for cooperation between the Belgian and Indian armed forces. Defence minister Francken aims to have more clarity on this by the end of the year.
For his part, Flemish minister-president Diependaele highlighted the strategic location of the port of Antwerp-Bruges and the significant investments Flanders is making in innovation. "With 3.6% of GDP devoted to research and development, we are among the world leaders," he said.
#FlandersNewsService | © BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE
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