A series of agreements between India and Brazil are expected to be signed during Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s official visit to India next week.
The proposed pacts aim to boost pharmaceutical exports, strengthen cooperation in critical minerals, and support the civil aviation sector, according to an ET report. The visit is scheduled from February 18 to 22.
Brazil is also planning to expand people-to-people ties by introducing a 10-year multiple-entry visa system for Indian tourists, Brazil’s envoy to India, Kenneth H da Nobrega, told ET ahead of the visit.
The envoy also indicated that Brazil is moving towards easing business visa norms for Indian professionals amid rising bilateral trade and investment flows.
Nobrega told ET that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the health sector is expected to benefit both countries.
“Brazil’s public healthcare system requires large volumes of medicines,” he said, noting that Indian pharmaceutical exporters are well placed to meet this demand due to their competitive pricing advantage.
Brazil is also expanding its critical minerals sector, and an MoU in this area is expected, the envoy said as per ET. India sees the vast mineral reserves across Latin America as a key part of its resource security strategy.
The envoy said another MoU between the Adani Group and Brazilian aerospace major Embraer is expected to be signed during the visit, according to the ET report.
Adani Defence & Aerospace and Embraer had signed an MoU last month to set up a manufacturing facility in India for regional transport aircraft.
Last year in July, PM Modi paid a visit to Brazil, upon invitation of President Lula da Silva. The leaders exchanged views on a wide range of bilateral, regional and global affairs.
According to an official release they reaffirmed their resolve to bolster the India-Brazil Strategic Partnership, while sustaining their countries’ distinct roles in global affairs, grounded in shared values and oriented by higher purposes, thus contributing to the pursuit of peace, prosperity and sustainable development of their peoples.
Building on strong economic and technological complementarities between India and Brazil, the leaders decided to charter a strategic roadmap to further strengthen bilateral ties over the next decade around five priority pillars. This included defense and security, food and nutritional security, energy transition and climate change, digital transformation and emerging technologies and industrial partnerships in strategic areas.
The leaders directed their relevant government agencies to work together towards strengthening bilateral cooperation in the five priority pillars and to report on progress made to the Brazil-India Joint Commission.
The leaders recalled their countries´ historic struggle of overcoming of colonialism and affirmation of sovereignty and coincided on the purposes of building a fairer international order, under the rule of International Law, and attentive to the aspirations of the Global South.
They expressed their support for an urgent and comprehensive reform of global governance institutions that increase the representation of developing countries in their decision-making bodies and adapt them to contemporary geopolitical realities.
