Modi to go ahead with Brussels visit despite terror attacks

Modi to go ahead with Brussels visit despite terror attacks

The Prime minister is to address a group of 10,000 Indian diasporas after the Indo- EU summit and the formal meeting with Belgium

The Dollar Business Bureau

 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public event with the Indian diaspora on March 30th is scheduled to go ahead as per plan as Brussels provides three-tier security to him.  The Prime minister is to address a group of 10,000 Indian diasporas after the Indo- EU summit and a formal meeting with Belgium. This event is being organised to be a public event, on the lines of the events that happened in Canada, UK, USA, Dubai, Russia, China and Australia. Officials handling Modi’s Belgium visit have specified that they are in constant touch with the Belgian Foreign Ministry, the Belgian government and the Indian Embassy in Brussels to assess the threat to Modi’s security. As the attack happened in less than ten days ahead of the event, Modi’s security authorities are on high alert and warnings have been issued across Europe. The officials have said that, the decision regarding hosting the event or scaling down the size of the event will be taken on Wednesday. The scheduled time for the event on March 30 is at 6 pm local time.   Last year Modi had attended smaller events for the Indian community in Germany and France. However, this is the Prime Minister’ss first trip to Brussels, the European Union’s Headquarters. As a result, the security arrangements for Modi is very strong. A major outcome of this Indian- EU summit will be the expansion of security partnership and counter -terror plans. The Indian origin population in Belgium is close to 20,000. And there is a strong set of Gujarati community that controls almost 75% of the diamond trading hub in Antwerp.  

March 28, 2016 | 06:00pm IST

The Dollar Business Bureau - Mar 28, 2016 12:00 IST