Amsterdam

India and the Netherlands established diplomatic relations in 1947. Year 2022 marks the 75 years of 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. Water, Agriculture and Health (WAH) are 3 priority sectors of cooperation besides technology and innovation.

Trade and commercial relations constitute the bedrock of bilateral ties between the two countries. The Netherlands was the third largest investor in India for FY 2019-20 with FDI inflows of USD 6.5 billion. In FY 2019-20, the Netherlands was the fourth largest destination for overseas direct investment (ODI) from India with investments estimated at USD 1.23 billion.

The Netherlands was India’s 5th largest trading partner in Europe in FY 2019-20 with a total two-way trade of US$11.75 billion. In FY 2020-21 (April-Dec), bilateral trade stood at US$6.55 billion with Indian exports to the Netherlands at US$4.33 billion and Indian imports from the Netherlands at US$ 2.22 billion.

India and Netherlands have strong cooperation in Renewable Energy. The Netherlands signed the Framework Agreement of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) in May 2018. India is one of the convening countries of the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA), headquartered in the Netherlands. The Netherlands joined the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in 2021. PM Modi addressed the Climate Adaptation Summit hosted by the Netherlands in January 2021 and had called for CDRI and GCA to work together to enhance infrastructure resilience globally. NITI Aayog, India’s premier policy think tank, and the Embassy of Netherlands, signed a Statement of Intent on 28th September 2020, through which both sides agreed to work together to support the decarbonisation and energy transition agenda.

The Netherlands hosts the second largest Indian Diaspora in Europe and the largest on mainland Europe, including 2,00,000 strong Surinami-Hindustani community of Indian origin. The Netherlands is also home to 48,000 NRIs/PIOs. They are mainly businessmen, knowledge workers, professionals and students.