MEA pushes back on Dutch concerns over press freedom and minority rights in India. PM Jetten raises child abduction case with PM Modi. Agreements signed include a semiconductor fabrication project between TATA Electronics and Dutch company ASML
India and the Netherlands upgraded bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country on Saturday and Sunday (May 16 and 17). The two sides signed 17 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in areas of “WAH” (water, agriculture, and health), renewable energy, critical minerals, and a semiconductor fabrication project between TATA Electronics and Dutch company ASML.
Recently elected Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he had raised “sensitive topics” with PM Modi, including a legal custody and abduction case involving a Dutch-born child, Insiya. Besides, a number of Dutch media outlets reported that Mr. Jetten spoke about concerns over “press freedoms and minority rights in India”, which the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) later pushed back on.
Mr. Modi said the meetings had added a “new momentum” to the India-Netherlands ties. “From elevating our relationship to a Strategic Partnership to expanding cooperation in water resources, semiconductors, innovation, defence, sustainability and mobility, we have charted an ambitious roadmap for the future,” he said in a social media post after leaving the Netherlands. Mr. Modi flew to Sweden on Sunday for a half-day stop as part of his five-nation week-long visit, which will bring him to Oslo on Monday for bilateral talks and the Nordic-India Summit.
“The strategic partnership we are entering into today between India and the Netherlands also offers us opportunities to discuss sensitive topics more frequently,” said Prime Minister Jetten during press statements at his official residence, the Catshuis, where he met with PM Modi, Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported.
‘Lack of understanding’
Mr. Jetten also reportedly said that “the Netherlands and the European Union are worried about press freedom and minority rights, among them the Muslim community and smaller communities”. Later, at an MEA briefing on Sunday, two Dutch journalists sought the MEA’s response to the comments and also asked why PM Modi had not joined the press conference.
“This question comes because of the lack of understanding,” retorted MEA Secretary (West) Sibi George in a lengthy response about India’s diversity in culture, language, food, and religion to a question from Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. “Today we are 1.4 billion people, diverse, living in peace and harmony. And a democratically elected government where peaceful transition of power happens,” he said, rejecting the concerns. However, he added that he had not seen the statement by PM Jetten that the journalists had referred to, but was giving the “factual position”. “You need to have more understanding of India to appreciate what India is,” he told another journalist from NRC.
The MEA spokesperson also told The Hindu that the Dutch PM “didn’t raise anything like that in the bilateral meetings or any other engagement with PM”.
During the briefing, Mr. George acknowledged that PM Jetten had indeed raised the case of Insiya, who was allegedly abducted by her father Shehzad Hemani, an Indian national, away from her mother in Amsterdam in 2016 at the age of two. The case has gained salience in the Netherlands, and on Saturday, the mother, Nadia Rashid, led protests outside the Dutch Palace where PM Modi met with the Dutch Royalty. She demanded that India help her trace and extradite her daughter, whom she last spoke to in 2018, and bring her former husband, who was convicted for abduction in the country, to justice. Mr. George said, “It is a case is in the court, it is sub judice, so I would not like to comment on this at this stage, but it was raised [by the Dutch PM].”
“With India, we share the importance we attach to democracy, good governance, and a world order based on rules and law,” PM Jetten said in a social media post on Saturday. “I spoke with Prime Minister Modi, among other things, about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with high energy prices as a consequence… We also discussed the case of Insiya’s kidnapping by her father to India.”
India, Netherlands upgrade ties; sign 17 MoUs on water, renewable energy, and semiconductors
MEA pushes back on Dutch concerns over press freedom and minority rights in India. PM Jetten raises child abduction case with PM Modi. Agreements signed include a semiconductor fabrication project between TATA Electronics and Dutch company ASML
India and the Netherlands upgraded bilateral ties to a Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the country on Saturday and Sunday (May 16 and 17). The two sides signed 17 agreements and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in areas of “WAH” (water, agriculture, and health), renewable energy, critical minerals, and a semiconductor fabrication project between TATA Electronics and Dutch company ASML.
Recently elected Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten said he had raised “sensitive topics” with PM Modi, including a legal custody and abduction case involving a Dutch-born child, Insiya. Besides, a number of Dutch media outlets reported that Mr. Jetten spoke about concerns over “press freedoms and minority rights in India”, which the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) later pushed back on.
Mr. Modi said the meetings had added a “new momentum” to the India-Netherlands ties. “From elevating our relationship to a Strategic Partnership to expanding cooperation in water resources, semiconductors, innovation, defence, sustainability and mobility, we have charted an ambitious roadmap for the future,” he said in a social media post after leaving the Netherlands. Mr. Modi flew to Sweden on Sunday for a half-day stop as part of his five-nation week-long visit, which will bring him to Oslo on Monday for bilateral talks and the Nordic-India Summit.
“The strategic partnership we are entering into today between India and the Netherlands also offers us opportunities to discuss sensitive topics more frequently,” said Prime Minister Jetten during press statements at his official residence, the Catshuis, where he met with PM Modi, Dutch newspaper Het Parool reported.
‘Lack of understanding’
Mr. Jetten also reportedly said that “the Netherlands and the European Union are worried about press freedom and minority rights, among them the Muslim community and smaller communities”. Later, at an MEA briefing on Sunday, two Dutch journalists sought the MEA’s response to the comments and also asked why PM Modi had not joined the press conference.
“This question comes because of the lack of understanding,” retorted MEA Secretary (West) Sibi George in a lengthy response about India’s diversity in culture, language, food, and religion to a question from Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant. “Today we are 1.4 billion people, diverse, living in peace and harmony. And a democratically elected government where peaceful transition of power happens,” he said, rejecting the concerns. However, he added that he had not seen the statement by PM Jetten that the journalists had referred to, but was giving the “factual position”. “You need to have more understanding of India to appreciate what India is,” he told another journalist from NRC.
The MEA spokesperson also told The Hindu that the Dutch PM “didn’t raise anything like that in the bilateral meetings or any other engagement with PM”.
During the briefing, Mr. George acknowledged that PM Jetten had indeed raised the case of Insiya, who was allegedly abducted by her father Shehzad Hemani, an Indian national, away from her mother in Amsterdam in 2016 at the age of two. The case has gained salience in the Netherlands, and on Saturday, the mother, Nadia Rashid, led protests outside the Dutch Palace where PM Modi met with the Dutch Royalty. She demanded that India help her trace and extradite her daughter, whom she last spoke to in 2018, and bring her former husband, who was convicted for abduction in the country, to justice. Mr. George said, “It is a case is in the court, it is sub judice, so I would not like to comment on this at this stage, but it was raised [by the Dutch PM].”
“With India, we share the importance we attach to democracy, good governance, and a world order based on rules and law,” PM Jetten said in a social media post on Saturday. “I spoke with Prime Minister Modi, among other things, about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with high energy prices as a consequence… We also discussed the case of Insiya’s kidnapping by her father to India.”
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