Seychelles President Patrick Herminie met Prime Minister Narendra Modi

♦ Seychelles President Patrick Herminie met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on 9 February 2026. During the talks Modi announced a special economic package of USD 175 million for Seychelles to support projects in key sectors including social housing, e-mobility, vocational training, health, defence and maritime security. 

♦ Patrick Herminie who is on a State Visit to India from February 5 to 10 at the invitation of the Prime Minister. The visit coincides with the 50th anniversary of Seychelles’ independence and 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

♦ The two leaders agreed to deepen cooperation in digital transformation, with India extending support for the development of Digital Public Infrastructure in Seychelles, including digital payments, to improve governance and citizen services.

♦ In the health sector, Prime Minister Modi announced the donation of 10 ambulances to Seychelles, while both sides agreed to enhance cooperation in public health, affordable medicines and hospital infrastructure. President Herminie thanked India for the donation of 1,000 metric tonnes of food grains, saying it would strengthen food security and help reduce the cost of living.

Rajnath Singh

♦ Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held bilateral talks with the Minister of National Defence of the Hellenic Republic, Nikolaos-Georgios Dendias, in New Delhi on 9 February 2026, reaffirming the growing strategic partnership between India and Greece anchored in shared values of peace, stability, freedom and mutual respect. 

♦ During the meeting, the two Defence Ministers signed a Joint Declaration of Intent aimed at strengthening defence industrial cooperation between the two countries. The declaration marks the beginning of work on a five-year roadmap to expand collaboration between India’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative and Greece’s defence reforms under Agenda 2030, with a focus on boosting indigenous defence manufacturing capabilities.

♦ Both sides also exchanged a Bilateral Military Cooperation Plan for 2026, outlining the roadmap for future military engagements and cooperation between the armed forces of India and Greece.

Narendra Modi

♦ Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim in Kuala Lumpur on 8 February 2026. The talks covered political, defence and security cooperation, trade and investment, the digital economy, energy, education, tourism and regional issues. On this occation India and Malaysia inked 11 MoUs. Key agreements include Exchange of Notes (EoN) on semiconductors, a sector where both countries are aggressively partnering to boost the value chain, including AI and R&D. 

♦ Both countries have also committed to advancing cooperation in emerging technologies. 

India and the Netherlands

♦ India and the Netherlands on 6 February 2026 took a step toward strengthening bilateral cooperation in clean energy research with the launch of the India-Netherlands Hydrogen Fellowship Programme and the signing of a key academic partnership between the University of Groningen and 19 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The initiatives, facilitated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), aim to boost research capacity, talent development, and deployment-oriented innovation in green hydrogen technologies, a critical pillar of India’s clean energy transition.

♦ The Hydrogen Fellowship Programme, for which the scheme guidelines and call for proposals were released on Thursday, is a national capacity-building initiative open to eligible doctoral, postdoctoral, and faculty applicants from Indian institutions. The programme will provide structured exposure to advanced hydrogen ecosystems in the Netherlands, focusing on system integration, safety, techno-economic analysis, life-cycle assessment, and pathways for indigenisation.

India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

♦ India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) signed the Terms of Reference (ToR) for negotiations on a proposed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on 5 February 2026, marking a significant step towards deepening economic ties between the two sides. The ToR will guide the scope, structure, and modalities of the India-GCC FTA negotiations, formally initiating discussions aimed at a comprehensive trade pact.

♦ Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the proposed FTA would act as a “force multiplier for the global good,” bringing greater predictability and stability to trade relations between India and the GCC. 

♦ India’s trade with the GCC stood at USD 178.56 billion in FY 2024-25, accounting for 15.42 percent of India’s total global trade. Over the past five years, bilateral trade has grown at an average annual rate of 15.3 percent.

♦ India’s key exports to the GCC include engineering goods, rice, textiles, machinery, and gems and jewellery, while imports primarily comprise crude oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), petrochemicals, and precious metals such as gold.

♦ The GCC, comprising six countries, represents a combined market of about 61.5 million people and a GDP of USD 2.3 trillion, ranking ninth globally. The region is also a major source of foreign direct investment for India, with cumulative investments exceeding USD 31.14 billion as of September 2025. Nearly ten million members of the Indian diaspora live in GCC countries, further strengthening people-to-people ties alongside the strong presence of Indian businesses across the region.