New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephone conversation with Belgian PM Alexander De Croo and congratulated him for the successful hosting of the First Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels.

The two leaders also reviewed relations between the two nations and discussed strengthening ties and advancing India-EU Partnership under the Belgian Presidency.

“Spoke to Belgium PM @alexanderdecroo. Congratulated him on the success of the First Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels. Exchanged views on strengthening bilateral ties; advancing India-EU Partnership under Belgian Presidency; and cooperation on regional and global issues,” PM Modi posted on X.

Spoke to Belgium PM @alexanderdecroo. Congratulated him on the success of the First Nuclear Energy Summit in Brussels. Exchanged views on strengthening bilateral ties; advancing India-EU Partnership under Belgian Presidency; and cooperation on regional and global issues.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 26, 2024

Belgian PM De Croo said that the two leaders discussed growing commercial relations between New Delhi and Brussels including in sectors of semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and green hydrogen.

He also said that Belgium will send a royal trade mission to India.

“Called Prime Minister @narendramodito discuss the conflicts in #Ukraine & #Gaza and protecting shipping lanes in the Red Sea. We also talked about our growing commercial relations #semiconductors #pharmaceuticals #greenhydrogen and the upcoming royal trade mission to India,” the Belgian PM posted on X.

Called prime minister @narendramodi to discuss the conflicts in #Ukraine & #Gaza and protecting shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

We also talked about our growing commercial relations #semiconductors#pharmaceuticals#greenhydrogen and the upcoming royal trade mission to India pic.twitter.com/mHa1kfxOq0

— Alexander De Croo (@alexanderdecroo) March 26, 2024

Both leaders reviewed the excellent relations between India and Belgium. They discussed ways to further strengthen the bilateral partnership in diverse sectors, including trade, investment, clean technologies, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, green hydrogen, IT, defence, and ports, among others, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a release.

The two leaders affirmed their commitment to further bolster the India – EU Strategic Partnership under the ongoing Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

They exchanged views on regional and global developments. They agreed upon the need to enhance cooperation and support for the early restoration of peace and security in the West Asia region and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The two leaders also agreed to remain in touch, the statement added.

The First Nuclear Energy Summit was held in Belgium on March 21.

Global leaders from more than 30 countries and the European Union (EU) met at the summit and emphasized the importance of using nuclear power to achieve energy security, climate goals and drive sustainable development.

Earlier in February, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his counterparts from Poland, Belgium, and Portugal on the sidelines of the Security Conference in Munich, Germany.

In his meeting with the Belgian Foreign Minister, Hadja Lahbib, the EAM lauded the advancement in bilateral ties between India and Belgium.

“Good to meet FM of Belgium @hadjalahbib this morning in Munich. Glad to work with the Belgian Presidency of the EU, as well as in advancing our bilateral ties,” the EAM wrote.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Cairo:

A man suspected of shooting dead two Swedish football fans and wounding another in Brussels was a 45-year-old Tunisian who had an asylum application rejected in 2020 but continued to live in Belgium illegally, according to Belgian officials.

After an overnight manhunt, police fatally shot the suspect at a cafe in the Schaerbeek district of northern Brussels on Tuesday morning, a day after his deadly attack, which prosecutors are treating as an act of terrorism.

Authorities said initial indications were that the suspect, who they have not named, was working as a lone wolf, rather than as part of a broad network.

In a video claiming responsibility for the attack, he said he was a member of the Islamic State group and gave his name as Abdesalem Al Guilani. Belgian state broadcaster RTBF named him as Abdesalem Lassoued.

At the yellow-brick apartment block in Schaerbeek overlooking a small park where the suspect lived, uniformed police stood guard on Tuesday morning while investigators searched for evidence inside.

The suspect had lived with a partner and their daughter in an apartment one floor up from the ground floor, neighbours said. The partner worked in a women’s hair salon, according to one neighbour, who declined to be named.

“He was the sort of person you would say said hello to, but not much more. He kept himself to himself,” said one woman, standing opposite a door smashed in by police in the apartment above the suspect’s.

“He was polite, there was no indication that something like this might happen,” said a male neighbour.

At a news briefing earlier on Tuesday, as police searched for the suspect, Belgian Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said the man was known to police and suspected of offences including human trafficking and illegal residence.

In 2016, a foreign police service passed on an unconfirmed report that the man had a “radicalised profile” and wanted to go to a war zone to wage jihad, Van Quickenborne said.

It later emerged that his identification as a subject at risk of radicalisation came from Italy, where he had arrived in 2011. He also moved to Sweden, from where he was later expelled.

But the Belgian minister said that there had been “no concrete indication” that the man had been radicalised in the time he was known to the Belgian security services, so he was not on any watchlist.

After his asylum application was denied in October 2020, Belgian authorities said he “disappeared from the radar” before an expulsion order in March 2021 that was not carried out.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he was not among some 700 people on Belgium’s terror watch list and had not stayed at an asylum-seekers centre, making it more difficult to track and expel him.

“The illegal Tunisian man lived here below the water line and yesterday he struck in a cowardly way towards our society from below the water line,” De Croo said, adding that an expulsion order must be carried out more urgently.

The shooting came at a time of heightened security concerns across much of Europe linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

This year, Belgian authorities received a tip that the man had been convicted of terrorism in Tunisia but the information proved to be false as the man had only been convicted of common law offences, Van Quickenborne said.

Nevertheless, apparently out of an abundance of caution, security authorities had convened a meeting to discuss his case, the minister said.

The meeting had been due to take place on Tuesday – the day he was fatally shot by police.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Brussels:

A 45-year-old Tunisian suspected of killing two Swedish football fans in Brussels has died after being shot by police in a cafe on Tuesday, Belgian media said.

The man, who was shot in the chest, died in hospital from his wounds, media said. There was no immediate official confirmation of his death.

The shooting comes at a time of heightened security concerns in some European countries linked to the Israel-Hamas conflict, though a Belgian federal prosecutor said there was no evidence that the attacker had any link to the recent renewed conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants.

Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden said earlier the wounded man was suspected of being the gunman. She also said she could not rule out that he had had accomplices.

Two Swedish nationals were shot dead and a third one was wounded in central Brussels on Monday night and a man who identified himself as a member of the Islamic State claimed responsibility in a video posted online.

The suspect fled the scene after the shooting as a football match between Belgium and Sweden was about to start, triggering a massive manhunt and prompting Belgium to raise its terror alert to the highest level.

“The weapon with which the attacks were committed has been found this morning where the man was apprehended in (the Brussels borough of) Schaerbeek. That makes the likelihood that the perpetrator has been caught bigger,” Verlinden told VRT broadcaster.

“We are checking fingerprints to be 100% sure.”

Federal prosecutors said they could not yet confirm the identity of the person shot but the Belgian capital’s mayor Philippe Close told BFM TV: “It seems indeed the suspect has been neutralised.”

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called Monday’s shooting a brutal “terrorist attack”.

“Last night three people left for what was supposed to be a wonderful soccer party. Two of them lost their lives in a brutal terrorist attack,” De Croo told a news conference.

“The perpetrator targeted specifically Swedish supporters who were in Brussels to attend a Red Devils soccer match. Two Swedish compatriots passed away. A third person is recovering from severe injures,” de Croo said.

Belgium was hosting Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifying match on Monday evening. The match was abandoned at halftime.

The country has raised the security alert status of its capital city to the highest level, with increased police presence, particularly for Swedish people and institutions, and warned the public to be extra vigilant and avoid unnecessary travel.

A man who identified himself as a member of Islamic State claimed responsibility in a video posted online.

SECURITY CONCERNS

The attacker, who unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium in November 2019, was known to police in connection with people smuggling, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne told a news conference.

Sweden’s Sapo security police, who in August raised their terrorism alert to the second-highest level and warned of an increase in threats against Swedes at home and abroad, said they were in contact with their international counterparts.

“We are in a serious situation … Sweden has (over time) ended up in an increasingly clear focus of violent Islamist extremism,” a Sapo spokesperson said in a statement.

The suspected gunman, calling himself Abdesalem Al Guilani, claimed in a video on social media that he was a fighter for Allah.

Video footage of the attack posted on the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper website showed a man in an orange jacket on a scooter at a street intersection with a rifle first firing five shots, then following people fleeing into a building before firing again.

The newspaper said on Tuesday that police were looking for an accomplice who filmed the attack.

According to a media transcript of the video message recorded by the self-declared perpetrator, he said he had killed Swedes to take revenge in the name of Muslims.

The European Commission, which is based in Brussels, has urged staff to work from home. Some schools were closed.

Belgium has been the target of several Islamist attacks over recent years, the deadliest being the 2016 attack on Brussels airport and the city’s metro, in which 32 people died.

Several of the Islamist gunmen that targeted Paris in a 2015 attack that killed 130 people were Belgian or living in Brussels.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Police cordon off an area where a shooting took place in the center of Brussels, on October 16, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Two people were killed during a shooting in Brussels on Monday evening and the suspect was on the run, the Belgian capital’s prosecutor’s office said.

The alleged gunman in a fluorescent orange jacket fled the scene after using an automatic rifle, according to a video shared by Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

A video claiming responsibility for the shooting was circulating on social media, in which a man speaks Arabic, a source close to the case said.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office told AFP that an investigation had been opened but did not speculate on the gunman’s motive.

The federal prosecutor in charge of terrorism cases was probing whether there was any possible terrorist motivation for the attack.

The shooting took place in the capital’s northern districts. Police had been alerted to the incident after 7 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).