The two Prime Ministers welcomed the progress under the MoU on renewable energy between the competent Belgian authorities at federal and regional levels and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of India, and the inaugural meeting of the Joint Working Group on 14 March 2016 identifying smart cities, waste to energy, small wind turbines, water purification technologies involving renewable energy and zero emission buildings as priority areas for joint collaboration.
The Leaders took positive note of the active cooperation in Science & Technology under the intergovernmental agreement between India’s Department of Science & Technology and the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, and looked forward to continued cooperation in this regard. They welcomed the technical activation of an optical infrared telescope in Devasthal in India, jointly developed by ARIES (Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences) of India and the Belgian company AMOS (Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems) as a concrete demonstration of successful collaboration. The two leaders also welcomed the upcoming signature of the finalized Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Biotechnology of India and the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO) for cooperation in the field of Biotechnology.
Noting the longstanding cooperation between the two countries in the Ports sector, they welcomed the imminent extension of the agreement between the Government of Flanders and the Ministry of Shipping for another two years, as well as the ongoing collaboration between the Port of Antwerp and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust to develop a Joint Training Center under the MoU signed in February 2015.
They also welcomed the ongoing negotiations to cooperate in the area of Information Communication Technology and Electronics (ICT&E) across a broad spectrum of domains including e-Governance/mobile Governance, cybersecurity, institutional framework between major research institutions, education and training in ICT and looked forward to early conclusion of an agreement.
