India and Belgium on Wednesday launched their first Strategic Dialogue, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Belgian counterpart Maxime Prévot agreeing to deepen cooperation across trade, technology, clean energy, defence and supply chain resilience amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainties.
The inaugural dialogue, held at Brussels’ Egmont Palace, marks a significant elevation of bilateral ties and comes as India and the European Union seek to broaden their strategic partnership beyond trade.
In his opening remarks, Jaishankar said India and Belgium had an opportunity to build on an already substantive relationship by expanding collaboration in sectors such as clean energy, digital technologies, life sciences, chemicals, logistics and manufacturing.
Referring to the Belgian economic mission led by Princess Astrid earlier this year, he said the delegation’s extensive travels across India had helped identify opportunities beyond the country’s traditional business centres.
India, he said, intended to reciprocate by intensifying engagement with Belgium, including through greater business-to-business collaboration.
The External Affairs Minister said the changing global landscape had made closer coordination between like-minded partners increasingly important.
“The international economy today faces structural challenges—overdependence on production sources, access to markets, connectivity, logistics and technology. The central challenge before diplomacy is how to stabilise, de-risk and diversify,” he said.
Jaishankar also pointed to the growing impact of conflicts in regions such as Ukraine, West Asia, Africa and the Indo-Pacific, saying their consequences were no longer confined to individual regions but were cascading across the global economy.
On India-EU ties, Jaishankar said the relationship was acquiring a distinctly strategic character, extending well beyond the proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
“The FTA is much bigger than just a trade agreement,” he said, noting that India and the EU were also advancing cooperation in security and defence, mobility, trusted technologies, research and innovation through initiatives such as the Trade and Technology Council and Horizon Europe.
He expressed optimism that negotiations in several areas, including the FTA, could be accelerated, saying both sides were now seeking to move faster than originally envisaged.
Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot described the launch of the Strategic Dialogue as the beginning of a “new chapter” in bilateral relations.
He said the mechanism would provide a structured framework for regular high-level engagement and reflected a shared ambition to develop a broader and more strategic partnership aligned with the expanding India-EU relationship.
Prévot said Belgium saw significant scope for cooperation with India in innovation, advanced technologies, clean energy, connectivity, defence and security, as well as talent mobility and people-to-people exchanges.
He also announced that Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and Defence Minister Theo Francken would visit New Delhi on September 3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to visit Brussels later this year, providing further momentum to bilateral ties.
The Strategic Dialogue comes alongside the India-EU Trade and Technology Council ministerial meeting in Brussels, underscoring growing convergence between India and Europe on trade, economic security, resilient supply chains and emerging technologies.
