India, Netherlands ink key deals on cooperation, digital sea corridor during Maritime Week 2025

“At the moment, the parliament in the Netherlands has asked us, from a geo-political point of view, (to) work really close with India. We listen to the parliament. We have set up missions. We are not here for the short stay but for a durable relationship. We have done it in the past, but we need to raise it up to the next level,” Tieman told reporters.

The minister said his country was focusing on a select few nations from a strategic point of view. “We have a maritime agenda in the Netherlands… We are choosing sectors where we are good at, and what we can bring to the table. We are putting the maritime manufacturing industry as an important sector,” he said.

Tieman said India is planning a maritime museum in Gujarat and the Netherlands is open for exchange of exhibits from a cultural and art point of view, surrounding a maritime theme.

He said the Netherlands is good at manufacturing specialty vessels, including military, yachts and dredgers. “We have a maritime innovation fund in the Netherlands, and we funded a project called Shipyard of the future. We are very much looking into niches, specialty vessels… We are going to be investing a lot more in military vessels from the geo-political point of view,” he said, adding that talks on those lines with India will be from the Ministry of Defence. “But we are looking into getting more operationality, capacity, and we will be investing a lot because of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) point of view,” he said.

MoUs for several businesses were also signed and exchanged, including one between Invest International, Indian Bank and ICICI Bank for cooperation in maritime financing; another between Dutch Climate Fund Managers and their Indian counterpart regarding India’s Maritime Development Fund; between Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN) and the National Centre of Excellence for Green Ports and Shipping for joint research on green shipping technologies; and between the Port of Rotterdam and the Deendayal Port Authority (Kandla Port) for institutional cooperation and digital knowledge exchange.

A Dutch-funded market study, titled ‘Indian Ports: Enabling Smart and Sustainable Port Development’, prepared by KPMG, was also launched to assess India’s port infrastructure and identify opportunities for green and digital transformation.

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