Jaishankar meets Netherlands minister Berendsen at UNGA81
Synopsis
External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar met Dutch minister Tom Berendsen at UNGA81 on September 24, 2026, exchanging views on the Ukraine conflict and reviewing deliverables from PM Modi's visit to the Netherlands.
Key Takeaways
Jaishankar met Tom Berendsen of the Netherlands on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly on September 24, 2026 .
The two ministers exchanged views on the ongoing Ukraine conflict , reflecting India's active multilateral engagement on the war.
The meeting followed up on deliverables from PM Narendra Modi's visit to the Netherlands , signalling active post-summit diplomacy.
India-Netherlands ties are anchored in trade, agriculture, water management, and technology cooperation, dating to at least the 2018 Hague visit .
The meeting reflects India's established practice of combining issue-based global discussions with bilateral economic consolidation at UNGA .
On the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly on Thursday, September 24, 2026, Union External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar sat down with Tom Berendsen, the Dutch minister handling foreign trade and development, for a bilateral exchange that covered both the ongoing Ukraine conflict and the unfinished business from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's earlier visit to the Netherlands. Two countries, one conversation — geopolitics and ground-level deliverables in the same breath.
Ukraine on the UNGA agenda — and at every bilateral table
The Ukraine conflict has become a near-constant fixture in India's European engagements since the war began in 2022, and this meeting was no different. India has consistently maintained a posture of strategic autonomy on the conflict — calling for dialogue and diplomacy while abstaining on key UN votes. For the Netherlands, a NATO member and EU state that has provided significant support to Kyiv, the conversation with New Delhi carries weight: India's voice matters at the multilateral table, and both sides have an interest in keeping that channel open.
Modi's Netherlands visit and what India is now tracking
The second thread of the meeting picked up where PM Modi's visit to the Netherlands left off. India and the Netherlands share a commercially dense partnership — rooted in agriculture, water management, and technology — that stretches back at least to Modi's 2018 Hague visit, when cooperation in those sectors was formally deepened. Jaishankar's reference to 'following up on deliverables' signals that the relationship is being actively managed rather than left to drift after the summit photo-ops. The specifics of the latest visit's agreed outcomes remain to be detailed publicly.
Why UNGA's margins are where real diplomacy happens
New York's UNGA week is, in practice, the world's most concentrated diplomatic sprint. In the space of days, a foreign minister can log bilateral meetings with dozens of counterparts — something that would otherwise require months of travel. For Dr. Jaishankar, a former Ambassador who has spent decades calibrating India's multilateral positioning, these sidebar conversations are not ceremonial. They are the connective tissue between high-level visits and actual outcomes. The India-Netherlands meeting fits a visible pattern: India using UNGA to combine principled engagement on global flashpoints with hard-nosed follow-through on bilateral commitments.
If the deliverables from the Modi visit translate into concrete agreements, the two countries' partnership — stretching from water technology to trade — could see its next meaningful upgrade soon.
Point of View
While simultaneously driving down-to-earth commercial follow-through. For New Delhi, UNGA sideline meetings are a force-multiplier — compressing months of travel into days of high-density engagement. The explicit reference to 'deliverables' from a PM-level visit suggests India is institutionalising its European partnerships beyond the summit cycle. With India-EU relations under renewed momentum, the Netherlands — a gateway to both EU markets and cutting-edge agri-tech — is a relationship New Delhi has every incentive to keep live and progressing.
NationPress
24 Sept 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
Who did Jaishankar meet at UNGA 2026?
Dr. S. Jaishankar met Tom Berendsen, the Dutch minister for foreign trade and development, on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly on September 24, 2026.
What did India and Netherlands discuss at UNGA81?
The two sides exchanged views on the Ukraine conflict and reviewed the deliverables from PM Narendra Modi's visit to the Netherlands earlier in 2026.
What is India's position on the Ukraine conflict?
India has maintained a posture of strategic autonomy, consistently calling for dialogue and a negotiated resolution while abstaining on several key UN votes related to the conflict.
When did PM Modi last visit the Netherlands?
PM Modi visited the Netherlands in 2018 to advance cooperation in water management, agriculture, and innovation. A more recent 2026 visit is referenced in the post, though specific details of that visit's deliverables have not been publicly detailed.
What are the main areas of India-Netherlands cooperation?
India and the Netherlands cooperate primarily in trade, agriculture, water management, and technology, making the Netherlands one of India's significant European economic partners.
