Belgium tells India there is 'no question' of defence work with Pakistan

Belgium's defence minister, Theo Francken, told Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on 3 September that there was "no question" of Belgian defence cooperation or technology assistance to Pakistan. Indian government sources gave that wording to The Hindu after the meeting. The assurance sat inside a visit that was already billed as defence-heavy: Prime Minister Bart De Wever's first official trip to India in 20 years, with Francken and 15 Belgian firms in the party.

Singh had raised the Pakistan question directly, the same sources said. India has been asking partners to keep dual-use kit and production know-how off routes that end in Pakistani programmes. Belgium's answer, as relayed in New Delhi, was a flat refusal to open that channel. Moneycontrol, citing ThePrint's establishment sources, framed the pledge as no supply of defence equipment or military technology to Pakistan.

The rest of the day was paperwork. The two ministers agreed to expand training, visits and a defence cooperation dialogue. They discussed maritime security in the Indo-Pacific. After De Wever met Narendra Modi, the governments signed a defence framework. Industry signed a stack of letters of intent and contracts on co-production, including Belgian rockets and ammunition in India. Francken told ANI the two sides had signed eight contracts aimed at co-production and protection of citizens. VRT counted ten letters of intent.

Attachés are the structural change. Francken said Belgium will put a defence attaché in New Delhi and India will put one in Brussels in the coming months. He also said Modi would visit Brussels before the end of the year. Those two postings turn a visit into a standing channel. The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Belgian Federal Police signed a separate memorandum on transnational organised crime and cybercrime.

Bilateral trade was already $13.01 billion in the last full year cited during the visit. Francken, who also holds the foreign trade portfolio, described India's military modernisation as a scale problem that rewards countries with the right factories. "Any country with the right technology that gains access to these programs is looking at large orders," he said. The Pakistan line is the political price of that access in New Delhi.

De Wever's trip is the first by a Belgian prime minister in two decades. That gap is why the defence file was allowed to grow this fast in 48 hours: framework pact, attachés, rocket and ammunition letters, a police memo, and a spoken bar on Pakistan. None of those items, including the bar, is a treaty with criminal penalties. The bar's value is that Francken said it in the same room as Singh, on the record to Indian officials who then briefed the press.

India will measure it against future Belgian export licences. Belgium will measure the industrial letters against actual lines in Indian plants. The attachés, once they arrive, will be the people who hear about both.