Dr Aprajita Kashyap
India and Brazil would be celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2023 which has been bolstered by a strategic partnership in 2006 that sought to deepen the relationship that the two countries have had based on a common global vision, commitment to sustainable development and shared democratic values.Besides engaging in summit meetings, high-level visits and exchanges, the two countries have worked together in various international foras including platforms such as BRICS, IBSA, G4, G20, BASIC, as well as the United Nations in the wider multilateral context.
The viability and sustainability of these links despite the political and economic constraints either from the international or the domestic arena, undoubtedly prove the integral connect with each other and the loftier commitment towards South-South cooperation.
Brazil has become one of the key entities in the Latin American region due to a relatively stable economy, emerging green technologies that can help advance the global energy transition, critical natural resources and a large expanse of the Amazon rainforest that is crucial to combating climate change.
During their regime, Bolsonaro and Lula had a broad vision for Brazil’s relationship with Asian major powers, particularly, with China and India which is seen as an indicator of Brazil’s foreign policy approach. Even though in the election campaign of 2022, the official program documents from Bolsonaro or Lula did not mention their plans for future relations with the two Asian powers, strengthening partnerships with both China and India would enable reasonable bargaining power for securing Brazilian strategic interests in Asian affairs. Given its importance in contemporary international politics, one can expect India to be a strategic priority for Brazil in the foreseeable future and a viable alternative to China. Yet, to what extent Brazil with its new president Lula can have an equipoised relationship with both China and India needs to be seen as his Presidency advances.
During the visit of Jair Bolsanaro to India in 2020, the potential areas for intensifying bilateral cooperation were identified with regards to clean energy, especially ethanol, that can help India become a low carbon economy; investment in the agriculture sector ; rapid electrification of the rail network; and infrastructure projects. In the multilateral arena, the PTA signed in 2004 with MERCOSUR, a trading bloc in the South America region comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay would remain significant. Mercosur, which has the potential to constitute a platform for the effective integration of LAC region into the world, could augur well to facilitate the negotiation of balanced trade agreements needed for India’s desired strategic development objectives.Interactions with regional grouping like CELAC (Latin American and Caribbean Community of States)which gives India a platform to interact directly with 33 sovereign countries of this region, has the capability to reinvigorate dialogue and cooperation.
Common Currency : Brazil & Argentina
The announcement that Brazil and Argentina would work towards a common currency, a move that would create the world’s second-largest currency bloc, will have a bearing on India’s relations with the entire LAC region.Lula da Silva and Argentine leader Alberto Fernandez are of the opinion that the creation of such currencies would be of immense use in intra-bloc tradeand woulddiffuse the challenges that the Global South faces in buying dollars. Similarly, devising a common currency for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is on the anvil. Diminishing currency exchange-related nitty-gritty could encourage trade and investment flows from India to other Latin American economies. The G-20 presidency that has been handed over to India, which would be passed on to Brazil provides the two with a befitting global stage in pursuit of common objectives.
The author is Faculty in Latin American Studies Programme, CCUS&LAS, SIS, JNU, New Delhi. Email: aprajitakash@gmail.com; aprajita@mail.jnu.ac.in
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