Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever will travel to India next week for a two-day visit that includes talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the first such meeting in India between the countries’ prime ministers in nearly 20 years.
The visit is scheduled for Thursday 3 September and Friday 4 September. Its political centrepiece will come on the first day, when De Wever and Modi are due to hold a three-hour meeting followed by a press conference.
The two leaders are also expected to sign a number of memoranda of understanding. It will be the first time since Guy Verhofstadt’s visit in November 2006 that a Belgian prime minister has been received by the Indian prime minister in India.
Later on Thursday, De Wever will deliver a speech at an event for Indian industry leaders. Defence and Foreign Trade Minister Theo Francken will join the delegation after an earlier visit to Japan.
Francken said on Friday evening programme Terzake that “seven major defence contracts” would be signed.
On 4 September, De Wever will visit a diamond exchange in Mumbai and inaugurate the new offices of HRD Antwerp, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre’s grading and education arm. The programme will conclude with a networking event organised by the Port of Antwerp-Bruges.
The visit is intended to build on momentum created by last year’s major economic mission to India and the historic free trade agreement the EU concluded with India earlier this year.
India is one of the world’s largest democratic growth markets, and the Belgian federal government sees the country as a reliable partner in diversifying international supply chains.
