Anticipating augmented relationships with all the nations of South America, External Affairs Minister (EAM), Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, instituted a three-nation-visit, which started on the 22nd of August and ended on the 27th of August, 2022. It was EAM’s first visit to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. During his meeting with the top leadership of these three nations, as well as his counterparts, their goal focused on bolstering economic, trade, energy supply, multilateral, and cultural links. The engagement with the Indian diaspora was also conducted during the Foreign Minister’s visit to these areas.
The Significance of the Visit
The visit of EAM to the three nations of South America has provided greater possibilities for conducting high-level interactions with India’s partners in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It helped in exploring new areas of cooperation in the era of the post-pandemic period while exchanging views on bilateral and international concerns.
- The Crucial Collaboration: India-Brazil: Both countries share a complex history of
interactions, which comprise bilateral, cultural, and multilateral cooperation. Brazil and India are strategic allies and participate in platforms like G20, BRIC, the International Solar Alliance, and the IBSA. The 8th Brazil-India Joint Commission Meeting (JCM), 2022 was led by the foreign ministers of Brazil and India, Dr. Jaishankar and Mr. Carlos Alberto Franco França, who gave substantial importance to the development of the shared agenda in the international organizations for instance, the UNSC, where both nations will be elected for the year 2022. The areas focused on were based on the domains of food security, business opportunities, and the expansion of IT services.
- The Pivotal Partnership: India-Argentina: One of the first countries in LAC to host an Indian Embassy is Argentina, which traces a long period of partnership between the two. In this recent world order, both India and Argentina are prospering democracies, with freedom and the rule of law, establishing natural friends. During this official visit, both the Foreign Minister (FM) of India and the FM of Argentina, H.E. Mr. Santiago Cafiero, discussed a variety of relevant areas of collaboration. There were commitments to strengthen the links, incorporating engagement with both the central banks of the nations, commerce, and investment in pharmaceutical firms. Cooperation in the fields of infrastructure and information technology will help enhance a greater experience of expansion.
- The Initiation Process of Collaboration: India-Paraguay: This visit by Mr. Jaishankar
becomes the first ever visit of an External Affairs Minister to the Republic of Paraguay. It also coincided with the 60th anniversary of the two countries’ establishing bilateral relations. Both the FMs of India and Paraguay, Mr. Jaishankar and H.E Mr. Mario Abdo Benitez, agreed in their meeting to prosper and amplify cooperation in the domains of trade, agriculture, and business. Apart from collaborating in these sectors, both the ministers emphasized augmenting collaboration in MERCOSUR, the solar energy sector, and communications.
The EAM’s three-nation visit marked noteworthy diplomatic actions portraying enhanced South-South collaboration. India’s deepening bilateral connections with its historic allies will not only create greater collaborative efforts in the economic, cultural, and business sectors but also in terms of maintaining a balance in the relations between other nations of the world. Although the general election in Brazil is approaching and there will be a significant impact on the bilateral ties between the nations, it is unlikely that India’s relationship with Brazil will change. Argentina has always been a dependable partner to India in South America and hopes for greater collaborations with India and Paraguay, which would lead to making India and South America’s relationship more concrete and intriguing.
