Modi visits Sweden after $11B Dutch chip deal with ASML

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Sweden on Sunday (May 17, 2026) for the third leg of his five-nation tour, where he will hold official bilateral discussions with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and interact with members of the European Round Table for Industry, a group comprising leading CEOs from across Europe, to explore trade and investment opportunities. Indian Ambassador Anurag Bhushan reported significant enthusiasm ahead of Modi's visit, particularly in Gothenburg, which he described as the heart of Swedish industry and innovation, as well as a center for the Indian diaspora. The visit to Sweden follows Modi's stay in the Netherlands, where India and the Netherlands elevated their relationship to the strategic partnership level and signed multiple agreements to enhance cooperation across various sectors. During the Netherlands stop, Modi witnessed the signing of a deal between Dutch tech giant ASML and Tata Electronics to establish and scale up a semiconductor plant in Dholera, Modi's home state of Gujarat, with a planned investment of $11 billion. ASML, Europe's biggest tech firm by market value, will deploy its advanced lithography tools at the plant, which enables rapid mass production of high-tech microchips used in everything from cars to mobile phones. The two countries also signed an economic partnership accord following the India-EU free trade agreement that Modi described as "the mother of all deals," while bilateral trade between India and the Netherlands reached $27.8 billion last year. Modi will subsequently visit Norway for an India-Nordic Summit before concluding his tour in Italy on May 19, where he will meet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Earlier in the tour, Modi addressed Indian expatriates in the Netherlands and visited Dutch King Willem Alexander, while Leiden University returned Chola-era copper plates to India. In the UAE, the first stop on his tour, Modi stressed the need for a "free, open and safe" Strait of Hormuz, the key oil shipping route affected by the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.