The focus of Brazil President’s his visit will be not only on enhancing trade relations between the two countries but also the work on the expansion of the India-MERCOSUR PTA which has been getting delayed due to issues among the members of the grouping

The government in the last few years has been consciously expanding its presence in the LatAm region and there have been several top-level visits from India to the region which is very important for India in terms of not only Energy Security but also Food security.

It’s confirmed! The President of Brazil Jair Messias Bolsonaro will be the chief guest at the Republic Day Celebrations next year.

As was reported earlier by Financial Express Online, at the bilateral meet on the sidelines of the 11th BRICS Summit in Brasilia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally extended the invitation to the Brazilian leader and it was formally accepted.

The government in the last few years has been consciously expanding its presence in the LatAm region and there have been several top-level visits from India to the region which is very important for India in terms of not only Energy Security but also Food security.

Developing relations with the region was one of the items on the agenda of Committee on External Affairs for 2019-20, Lok Sabha. Besides Modi’s visit to Mexico and Brazil, President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu have visited many of the countries both in South and Central America.

In recent years, among the major inward visit was the former President of Argentina Mauricio Macri. There have been several other visits from the region to India and a lot of big visits are on the charts.

The focus of Brazil President’s his visit will be not only on enhancing trade relations between the two countries but also the work on the expansion of the India-MERCOSUR PTA which has been getting delayed due to issues among the members of the grouping.

The Brazilian leader announced that he will be visiting India accompanied by a high-level business delegation with representatives from a wide range of sectors including agricultural equipment, animal husbandry, post-harvest technologies and biofuels. There will be officials from the Space agency too who are seeking to further collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and in the defence sector too.

In an earlier interaction a top Brazilian diplomat had mentioned that defence is not a central issue for Brazil and its relations with its ten neighbours is very strong. However, there are concerns related to the Amazon as well as Blue Amazon and for this Brazil is looking for equipment to protect its coastline as well as technologies to help with wildfire.

According to officials, under the BRICS and IBSA groupings there have been joint exercises that are part of the MoU and frameworks of the groupings.

Aerospace is another sector which can be explored with the world’s third-largest aircraft manufacturer Embraer Aerospace Company of Brazil. According to reports, the proposed Boeing-Embraer deal has been put off till March 2020.

Bolsonaro will be the third president of Brazil to be the chief guest at the Republic Day Celebrations. In 2004, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was the guest.

South-South Cooperation

In 2018, as a member of IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) IBSA Declaration on South-South Cooperation was adopted by the member states. This Declaration is about contributing to a deeper understanding of development cooperation of the global South.

The focus of IBSA is on the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable development and urges the member states to work together towards food security, skills development, transfer of technology and industrialisation.

There is an IBSA Fund, which is being managed by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). Over the last decade, the Fund has partnered 19 countries from the Global South for implementing 26 projects. Around 62.4 percent of the IBSA Fund has been devoted to the least developed countries (LDCs).