Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Belgian defence minister, trade minister Theo FranckenNEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh Thursday made it clear to visiting Belgian defence minister and trade minister Theo Francken that for Indo-Belgian defence relations to flourish, his country should not have any defence pact on sensitive technology with Pakistan. After the meeting, Rajnath said on X, “We reviewed the entire spectrum of defence relations and defence industrial cooperation between India and Belgium.

Multiple MoUs and contracts under the defence industrial cooperation were also signed, towards leveraging Belgian technology together with Indian skill and scale.” India and Belgium inked a defence framework pact and separately, 10 pacts on collaboration between Belgian and Indian defence industries were signed, involving production of Belgian military hardware such as rockets in India.

The Belgian side said that “there are also opportunities (to have cooperation with India) in weapon systems, ammunition, radar, electro-optical sensors, command and control, and counter-drone systems. ”“With this visit, we are reaping the benefits of what we have built over the past year.

Every project that connects our technology with India’s growing defence industry strengthens both our security and economic position,” Francken said. At the India-Belgium Defence CEOs Roundtable and B2B meetings attended by MoS defence Sanjay Seth, Francken emphasised the strong potential for deeper industrial collaboration between the two sides to strengthen the defence forces through collective efforts.

The Belgium defence minister underscored the growing strategic partnership between India and the European Union (EU), highlighting the robust dialogue structures developing across maritime security, information security and aerospace. Commending the dynamism of Indian entrepreneurs, Francken stressed the need to bolster the two militaries in the evolving security environment through joint efforts.

“United we stand, divided we fall,” he said. Seth urged Belgian defence manufacturers to leverage their technological expertise alongside India’s manufacturing scale for co-development and co-production of niche products for shared security and prosperity.

Highlighting the strategic transformation of India’s defence manufacturing sector, MoS defence stated that the nation is decisively moving from import dependence to indigenous capability, trusted partnerships, and global competitiveness through initiatives such as Aatmanirbhar Bharat and Make-in-India. “This transformation is outward-facing.