India, Belgium agree to double trade; PM says nation's growth inspires global confidence
India and Belgium concluded bilateral talks with an agreement to double bilateral trade within five years
Five agreements were signed, including a defence cooperation pact covering military training, officer exchanges, research and development, and maritime security cooperation
An Investment Fast-Track Mechanism was set up to facilitate Belgian investment into India, and the India-Belgium Business Forum was institutionalised as a regular mechanism
Cooperation areas were expanded to include critical minerals processing and recycling, renewable energy, and semiconductors, with the Belgian research institute IMEC identified as a partner for India's chip ecosystem
The joint statement reaffirmed the significance of the diamond trade corridor linking Antwerp with Mumbai and Surat
India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) and ISM 2.0
The India Semiconductor Mission was launched in December 2021 as an incentive-linked scheme to build a semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in India, initially with an outlay of ₹76,000 crore. In the Union Budget 2026-27, the government announced ISM 2.0 with a substantially larger outlay of ₹1.27 lakh crore to expand chip design, manufacturing and research capacity.
Key Details
- ISM operates under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as the nodal agency for approving semiconductor fabs and Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging (ATMP) units
- ISM 2.0 (2026-27) was allocated funds to accelerate the chip ecosystem, building on the original ₹76,000 crore programme
- Global semiconductor collaboration typically follows a "Buy Global / technology partnership" model where Indian manufacturing scale is paired with foreign design/fabrication expertise (as with Belgium's IMEC, a leading nanoelectronics research institute)
The India-Belgium framework explicitly names IMEC as a technology partner for India's semiconductor ambitions, linking a bilateral diplomatic outcome to India's flagship domestic manufacturing mission.
National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM), 2025
The National Critical Mineral Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet in January 2025 to secure India's supply chain for minerals essential to clean energy, electronics and defence manufacturing, with a total outlay of ₹34,300 crore over seven years (2024-25 to 2030-31).
Key Details
- The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2023 (effective from 17 August 2023) inserted 24 critical and strategic minerals into Part D of Schedule I of the MMDR Act, 1957, enabling their auction
- The 2023 amendment removed 6 of these (lithium, beryllium, niobium, titanium, tantalum, zirconium) from the list of atomic minerals reserved exclusively for state agencies, opening them to private and foreign participation
- The Ministry of Mines conducted the first tranche of critical mineral block auctions in November 2023
Belgium's cooperation offer on "processing and recycling" of critical minerals fits directly into the downstream processing gap that the NCMM is designed to close, since India currently has significant reserves but limited domestic refining capacity for several critical minerals.
India-EU Free Trade Agreement (Political Conclusion, January 2026)
Belgium is a founding member state of the European Union, so bilateral India-Belgium trade sits within the broader India-EU trade relationship. The EU and India reached political conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement on 27 January 2026 in New Delhi, ending nearly two decades of on-off negotiations; the deal still requires formal ratification before entering into force.
Key Details
- The India-EU FTA is described as the largest trade deal either side has concluded, covering a combined market of close to 2 billion people and roughly a quarter of global GDP
- The associated Investment Protection Agreement remains a separate, unresolved negotiation track
- A realistic timeline for the FTA's legal entry into force is 2027-2028, following ratification by the European Parliament and EU member states
The push to double India-Belgium trade in five years operates in the shadow of the broader India-EU FTA, since tariff and market-access terms for an EU member state like Belgium will ultimately be shaped by the umbrella EU-level agreement once ratified.
Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020 — Procurement Categories
India's defence procurement from foreign countries is governed by the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, promulgated on 28 September 2020, which replaced the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2016 and renamed the framework from "Procurement" to "Acquisition" to reflect a wider scope including leasing.
The India-Belgium defence pact covering training, officer exchanges and joint R&D is a framework-level agreement; any future equipment or technology deals arising from it would be processed through the DAP 2020 category structure.
- Bilateral trade target: doubled within 5 years (exact timeline from the agreement)
- Number of agreements signed: 5
- India Semiconductor Mission: launched December 2021, ₹76,000 crore original outlay; ISM 2.0 announced Budget 2026-27 with ₹1.27 lakh crore outlay
- National Critical Mineral Mission: approved January 2025, ₹34,300 crore over 2024-25 to 2030-31
- MMDR Amendment Act, 2023: effective 17 August 2023; added 24 critical and strategic minerals to Schedule I
- India-EU FTA: political conclusion 27 January 2026; combined market of ~2 billion people, ~25% of global GDP
- Diamond trade corridor: Antwerp (Belgium) linked with Mumbai and Surat (India) as the historic cutting-and-polishing hub