Belgium Prime Minister Bart De Wever on Thursday took a sharp dig at Chinese dumping and Europe's growing economic dependence on Beijing, acknowledging that India had warned them about these risks earlier “but we didn’t listen”.
Speaking at the CII event in New Delhi, the Belgian PM said that Europe has experienced a “rude awakening” after years of allowing foreign overcapacity to undermine its industries and create dependencies that could eventually be used as leverage.
“For Europe, these past years have been a rude awakening. For too long, Europe looked on as overcapacity was dumped below costs on our markets. As its industrial base was undermined and as dependencies were deliberately built up so that it could be used as leverage," he said.
Without directly naming China, De Wever said it is quite clear which country used its economic leverage against Europe.
"The country that has profited most from that practice does not lie very far from here; it's a neighbour you all know."
De Wever acknowledged that India had identified the problem before European countries did.
“India saw this earlier than we did. And they warned us. And we didn’t listen. But we are drawing our conclusions now."
De Wever also defended the need for countries to protect their core economic interests even while remaining committed to free trade.
“Defending self-interest is essential to build the trust on which free trade depends. The concept is credible when the country is neither naive nor willing to compromise its essential interest. Trust rests on mutual respect.”
He further stressed that Europe did not want critical economic dependencies to become instruments of coercion. “We don't like to be pushed around. We don't like dependencies becoming weaponised against us," he said.
De Wever is on a two-day official visit to India from September 2-4.
Earlier, India and Belgium agreed to expand defence cooperation by signing a range of pacts, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his De Wever identifying trade and investment, critical minerals, high technologies, and semiconductors as key drivers to bolster ties in the face of a fragmented global geopolitical environment.