EAM Jaishankar arrives in Belgium to lay ground for PM Modi's Europe visit

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar arrived in Belgium on Monday for talks with leaders of the European Union on the bilateral issues and prepare the ground for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit for the India-EU summit here next month.

Jaishankar, who was in Germany during the weekend for the Munich Security Conference, arrived here and met his Belgian counterpart Philippe Goffin.

"Happy to meet FM @PhGoffin of Belgium. Confident that we can build further on our bilateral, EU and global partnerships," he said in a tweet.

Jaishankar's visit comes weeks after the European Parliament postponed until March a vote on a joint motion, combining five different resolutions tabled by its members against India's Citizenship Amendment Act, which was debated at its Plenary session in Brussels.

During the debate, Helena Dalli, the Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, had said the Commission was looking forward to Prime Minister Modi's visit to Brussels in March for the 15th India-EU Summit.

Before meeting Goffin, Jaishankar visited a Jain temple in Antwerp and offered prayers.

"An auspicious start to my EU-Belgium trip by a visit to the Jain Mandir at Antwerp," he tweeted.