Union Minister for Defence, Rajnath Singh, holds a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade of Belgium, Theo Francken, in New Delhi on Thursday
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India and Belgium military industries on Thursday signed multiple agreements and partnerships alongside a Letter of Intent between their respective Ministries of Defence. The move was to establish defence-industrial partnerships, a framework for regular exchanges, staff talks, education and training, and research cooperation.The industrial agreements are: Thales Belgium and Thales India Pvt Ltd have partnered with Kalyani Strategic Systems -- a defence arm of Bharat Forge -- to assemble 70 mm rockets in India, with a target for full domestic production by next year. Kalyani Strategic Systems has also tied up with another Belgium company, FN Herstal, for exploring a joint facility for small arms, integrated weapon systems, and counter-drone tech.L&T too has firmed up agreements with more than one Belgium firm to get access to the product and technology the Indian Navy and Indian Army is looking for. With Exail Belgium, L&T is collaborating on mine countermeasure vessels and autonomous naval mine-hunting systems. Besides that, L&T and John Cockerill Defense will be partnering on armoured vehicle technology, including work linked to India’s Zorawar Light Tank programme.Interestingly, John Cockerill had announced a joint venture way back in March, last year, with Indian firm Electro Pneumatics and Hydraulics Ltd to produce turrets for the Zorawars. State-owned BEL and Octave are expanding cooperation in air-defence visualisation technologies for systems like Akash Teer while the ABC Belgium & Kirloskar have agreed to discuss cooperation on India’s indigenous 6 MW marine diesel engine programme. The others were between, Tembo Classic Engineering Pvt Ltd (India) and Lachaussée SA (Belgium), India Optel Ltd (India) and OIP (Belgium); Krishna Industries Pvt Ltd (India) and Pitagone (Belgium); DGVK Enterprises Private Limited (India) and Sol1 BV (Belgium).Bilateral meetingA delegation of 15 Belgian defense companies is accompanying Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever who is on an official tour of India.The agreements and partnerships were inked following the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Belgian’s Bart De Wever. De Wever is accompanied by Defence and Foreign Trade Minister Theo Francken who had a bilateral meeting with Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh.“Both leaders also discussed issues of regional peace and security and acknowledged the need for maritime security collaboration in the Indo-Pacific. They reiterated that the partnership between India and Belgium is based on shared values of mutual trust and respect,” the defence ministry said.Earlier, the two PMs welcomed the growing defence-industrial cooperation between India and Belgium and noted that such partnerships were further strengthened during the Belgian Economic Mission to India in March 2025, as per a joint statement. Recognising the potential for further collaboration in defence manufacturing, technology, innovation, co-development and co-production, both leaders welcomed the signing of the multiple agreements and partnerships between the Belgian and Indian defence industries, and encouraged the industries on both sides to remain engaged.They also welcomed the appointment of a Defence Attache by Belgium in New Delhi and welcomed India’s decision to appoint a resident Defence Attache in the Indian Embassy in Brussels in the near future.In the day-long events, India-Belgium Defence CEOs Roundtable and B2B Meetings also took place. Published on September 3, 2026
