India, EU should engage more: Jaishankar in the Netherlands

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Monday met strategic experts in The Hague following which he held discussions over the need for India and the Netherlands to engage more deeply in an era of multi-polarity and strategic autonomy.

After the meeting, Jaishankar shared the images of the meeting with experts on micro-blogging site X and wrote: “A good exchange of views with strategic experts in The Hague this morning,” he said.

“Discussed why India and the Netherlands or EU should engage more deeply in an era of multi-polarity and strategic autonomy,” he added.

Jaishankar is currently on an official visit to the Netherlands. He will also visit Denmark and Germany from May 19-24, 2025, as part of the three-nation tour. “During the visit, EAM will meet the leadership of the three countries and hold discussions with his counterparts on the entire gamut of bilateral relations and regional and global matters of mutual interest,” read the statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

India and the Netherlands established diplomatic relations in 1947, and 2022 marked 75 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

“Today, India and the Netherlands enjoy strong political, economic & commercial relations. High-level mutual exchanges have provided impetus to the multifaceted partnership between the two countries,” read the Indian Embassy in the Netherlands website.

Water, Agriculture and Health (WAH) are 3 priority sectors of cooperation besides technology and innovation. The Netherlands is India’s 11th-largest merchandise trading partner in the world and the largest in the European Union. During the FY 2023-2024, the total merchandise trade with the Netherlands stood at $27.341 billion (INR 2,26,425 crore).

The total merchandise trade with the Netherlands accounts for 2.46% of India’s total merchandise trade. India has a trade surplus of $17.393 billion (INR 1,44,095 crore) with the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is India’s largest merchandise export destination in Europe and the third largest in the world (after the US and the UAE).

In FY 2023-2024, India exported $22.367 billion (INR 185,260 crore) worth of goods to the Netherlands. The merchandise exports to the Netherlands accounted for 5.12% of India’s total merchandise exports.

India