Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever, without naming US President Donald Trump over his recent decisions to slap tariffs on various countries, has said that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union have made both economies resilient against disruption and coercion, reported IANS.
Terming the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement a cornerstone for strategic trust, PM De Wever on September 4 stressed that finalising comprehensive FTAs is Europe’s priority to counter global supply chain shocks. He noted that the FTA would serve as a structural buffer against arbitrary unilateral tariffs.
“Ladies and gentlemen, more and more voices today are calling for barriers to go up, for markets to be shut off, for tariffs to be imposed. Some do this entirely arbitrarily.
They decide something on Monday, they revoke it on Wednesday. I am not going to say the name, but you know these people who do it arbitrarily, without any economic logic at all,” he said at the India- Belgium high level dialogue on the India- EU FTA jointly organised by Port of Antwerp -Bruges, the Chancellery of Belgian Prime Minister, FPS Foreign Affairs, Flanders Investment and Trade and the Consulate-General of Belgium in Mumbai. Union Minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were also present.
Geopolitical shifts
Referencing the broader geopolitical shifts — including global tariff uncertainties and aggressive protectionism, PM De Wever emphasised that open, mid-sized trading economies like Belgium and rapidly expanding powerhouses like India cannot afford economic isolation or weaponised trade barriers.
Terming the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement a cornerstone for strategic trust, PM De Wever on September 4 stressed that finalising comprehensive FTAs is Europe’s priority to counter global supply chain shocks.
Referring to the earlier speech of Union Minister Goyal, who used the symbolism of a diamond getting created under pressure, the Belgian PM reiterated that pressure creates diamonds.
“We are sailing through rough waters. But India and Europe, we have made a choice to be that diamond; we choose another course. If we are pressured, we are pressured together, and we choose partnership. In January, we concluded one of the most far-reaching free trade agreements in the world. The mother of all deals, with a market of two billion consumers, a quarter of the world economy. But it is much more than that alone. It is an expression of strategic openness. It is an expression of the willingness to trust; it is the proof of mutual respect,” he said.
Full delegation
The Prime Minister announced that a full delegation from the Belgian port community companies, terminals, logistics, chemistry, and energy will be coming to India in February 2027. “We are not going to discuss what we might do; we are going to agree on what we are going to do,” he said.
PM De Wever also said PM Narendra Modi is a wise leader and one of the most inspiring world leaders.
