Mumbai, Sept. 5 -- Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever took an apparent swipe at US President Donald Trump over the latter's "arbitrary" tariff decisions and shifting trade policies, stressing the need for open markets and stronger economic partnerships.

Speaking at the India-Belgium High-Level Dialogue on the India-EU Free Trade Agreement in Mumbai as part of his three-day official visit to India on Friday, De Wever cautioned against growing calls for protectionism, saying some countries were increasingly advocating barriers, closed markets and tariffs.

"More and more voices today are calling for barriers to go up, for markets to be shut off, for tariffs to be imposed. Some do this entirely arbitrarily. They decide something on Monday...