Looking forward to augmenting relationships with all nations of the LatAm Region, External Affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar has embarked on a three-nation visit starting August 22.

During the Minister’s meeting with top leaderships of these three countries as well as his counterpart, focus will be on food and energy security, defence and security, space, IT, and aerospace.

This will be the minister’s first visit to the South American Region when he travels to Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina starting August 22-27. The minister, accompanied by senior officials, will have bilateral engagements with his counterparts and will also call on the top leadership in all the three countries.

Agenda announced by MEA

In his first ever visit to Paraguay, India’s first embassy’s premises will be inaugurated by Jaishankar which started functioning in January 2022.

During his visits to Brazil and Argentina, the minister will co-chair the Joint Commission Meetings (JCM) with his counterparts, where the focus will be to review the bilateral relationships in different sectors and will also discuss regional and global issues of common interests.

Both Brazil and Argentina are strategic partners of India. Also on the agenda of his visit to these countries to meet and interact with the Indian communities as well as business leaders.

According to the MEA, in Brazil, the minister is scheduled to deliver an address at the Rio Branco Institute (Brazilian Diplomatic Academy).

Also Read: Jaishankar heads to South America – Food, energy security and defence to be focus

Importance of the visit to these countries

Since September 2021, Jaishankar visited four important countries in the region. Last year in September he visited Mexico. And, next week the visit to three countries in a week is expected to provide an opportunity to explore new avenues for cooperation post-pandemic.

India-Brazil

Ahead of the Minister’s visit, navies of both the countries had their first bilateral drill Maritime Partnership Exercise (MPX) in which INS Tarkash with Brazilian Naval Ship Uniao, a Niteroi class frigate.

According to the Indian Navy, during the exercise of the two navies the focus was honing inter-operability and further strengthening diplomatic and maritime ties between the two countries. In two decades this was the first deployment of an Indian Navy ship to South America and navies of both countries participated in multifaceted operations which included tactical manoeuvres, cross deck landing, and replenishment at sea approaches.

INS Tarkash, which is deployed in the Atlantic, was in Brazil to unfurl the tricolour on August 15 at Rio de Janeiro, as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations. During the celebrations on board the guided missile frigate, the President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro visited the ship, and interacted with the crew and other dignitaries on board.

India –Paraguay

On the visit of Jaishankar, speaking to Financial Express Online from Asunción, Paraguay, Yogeshwar Sangwan, India’s first envoy to that country, said, “The minister will arrive on August 21,  he have meetings with the top leadership of the country and some MoUs are on the anvil to be signed. He will meet with the businessmen and also will be unveiling the statue of Mahatma Gandhi and inaugurate the Chancery.”

Adding, “In the Space sector, India has offered some courses in building nano-satellites.”

Also Read: Trade, education, tourism, yoga to get a boost: Indian envoy to Paraguay

India-Argentina

 Food security, including edible oil, expansion of the existing MERCOSUR-India PTA is among some of the issues that are going to be discussed including Argentina’s interest in space cooperation.

Sunflower Oil from Argentina

India is disproportionately dependent on Ukraine for its sunflower oil requirements. In the last 4 years about 9.40 million metric tonnes of Sunflower oil was imported by India out of which 81%, i.e. 7.60 million metric tonne was imported from Ukraine and the balance came from Argentina and other countries. And post the Russia Ukraine conflict more Argentine Sunflower has started coming in.

“So, the first product on which we must focus is Sunflower oil from Argentina. While Argentina needs to focus on increasing the acreage of sunflower and the crushing output quality, India must ensure that the Argentine sunflower oil is not too discounted to Ukraine origin oil. Argentina can support the acreage growth by assuring to farmers that the export taxes regime for sunflower oil will remain consistent over the next two years at least and India also must assure the same thing to Argentina that it will not tinker with the import duty structure on Sunflower oil, so that there is consistency and predictability for the farmers on both sides,” an expert explained to Financial Express Online on condition of anonymity.

Expert View

Sharing her views on the forthcoming visit to South American countries, Dr Aparaajita Pandey, Senior Research Associate, ShowTime Consulting, PhD from Centre for Latin American Studies, JNU says: “The recent visit of the EAM, Jaishankar to the countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay is another visit in a series of increasing high- level visits between India and Latin America and the Caribbean. The heightened interest in engaging with each other between India and Latin America and the Caribbean is emblematic of both India’s attempts to conquer the proverbial final frontier when it comes to foreign policy and for Latin America and Caribbean it signifies an identification and understanding of the potential of India as a partner in trade, defence, and south – south cooperation.”

According to her, “India has enjoyed friendly relations with Brazil. Brazil is not only physically the largest country in the region but has for long been considered a leader of the Latin American continent. Brazil and India have shared notions on global politics, geo – economics, and also south-south cooperation. They are both a part of forums like the IBSA, BRICS, and G- 20 etc. Argentina on the other hand is a country that India has a PTA with and has a large potential of collaboration when it comes to the issue of food security.”

 “This is the first time that an Indian EAM will be visiting the nation of Paraguay. Paraguay is often overlooked when bilateral relations between India and Latin American countries are mentioned. However, India is looking forward to augmenting the relationship with all nations of the region. With this backdrop, EAM would be inaugurating the Indian embassy in the country which has been functional since January of this year,” Dr Pandey added.