High-level military talks over last two years helped identify synergies: Brazil Foreign Minister Vieira (The Economic Times, Índia, 8/27/2024)

By Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury
Aug 27, 2024, 07:19:00 AM IST

India offers Brazil significant opportunities to position itself as a relevant partner in the defence sector in terms of both trade and joint ventures, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on a visit to India told ET’s Dipanan Roy Chaudhury. Vieira also referred to expanding opportunities in agriculture & energy sector and how India and Brazil are coordinating in G20 & BRICS.

India-Brazil ties have reached unprecedented heights over the last one year. What are plans by India and Brazil to expand their strategic partnership across 3 main pillars -- defence; agriculture & energy?

The number of business missions - from Brazil to India and from India to Brazil- in the last 12 months has already exceeded 40 missions and important new productive investments in both India and Brazil have recently been announced.

The strengthening of our economic ties lies on solid political foundations. Brazil-India relations are as old as India's main role in world affair since its Independence in 1947. Central to these relations is the mutual trust our countries have built up over these seven decades.

The importance of the trust factor cannot be overstated. Especially nowadays, when geopolitical factors increasingly condition strategies and decisions in all areas, including the economic and commercial spheres.

On agriculture, there’s much complementarity to be explored. India´s sustained economic prosperity poses the challenge to close a growing gap between domestic food demand and supply. That opens a wide range of opportunities for partnerships with Brazil.

There are possibilities for investment in logistics, storage, food processing and agricultural technology, both in India and Brazil.

In the area of defense, India has established a solid and diversified industry over the years, but is also one of the top importers of defense products in the world. The solidity of our bilateral relations, coupled with a consolidated and competitive defense industry, offer significant opportunities for Brazil to position itself as a relevant partner for India also in this field, in terms of both trade and joint ventures.

The various high-level visits between military authorities from both countries in the last two years have helped identify complementarities.

Another extremely promising area is the energy sector: India's demand for energy is growing in line with the country's rapid economic expansion. India has been investing heavily to make its energy matrix cleaner and sustainable. Brazil has already seized opportunities in this sector through significant investments in wind energy. In addition, Brazil's success story with biofuels makes us a natural partner of India's energy transition, whether through the export of raw materials, renewable fuels or technology transfer. The success of the “Ethanol Talks” dialogue mechanism and the bilateral coordination for the creation of the Global Biofuels Alliance are strong examples of this partnership.

In addition to these three priority sectors, there are several others where the current investment and trade framework already reveals mutual interest and opportunities. For example, the pharmaceutical, automotive, information technology and infrastructure sectors.

What will be the signature outcome of G20 under the Brazilian Presidency ? How is Brazil coordinating with India on the G20 agenda?
As President Lula has stated, if we had to summarize the current global challenges in a single word, it would be inequality. Inequality as the root cause of several of the crises we face and frequently as a major factor contributing to make things worse.

Our presidency has been organized around three priorities: sustainable development, combatting hunger and poverty and the urgent need to reform the global governance institutions.

In our presidency, which benefited from the great work done by India last year, we are determined to reap concrete results in the fight against poverty hunger and climate change, by putting together two task forces: the Global Alliance against hunger and poverty and the Global Mobilization against Climate Change.

Brazil sees the G20 role as a conduit to muster political will towards concrete change, in times of multiple crises. While these crises affect all countries, they do not affect them equally. Developing countries and their populations are likely to bear the brunt of them. And we should address inequality among and within countries as we transition to a carbon free economy.

Formally, the promotion of sustainable development is one of the three priorities, but in fact it has been mainstreamed in the discussions pertaining to the other two priorities. This mainstreaming is embodied in the two task forces we launched in a spirit of bringing together the two tracks. There cannot be meaningful results in tackling the challenges of climate change and hunger without sufficient, timely and accessible financial resources.

Delivering the unprecedented level of investments required to match the needs of transition in most of the countries especially in developing ones calls for the transformation of the financial system and its structures and process. We need to engage governments, central banks, financial regulators and the other main financial stakeholders in the public and prívate sectores. The G20 once again can play a constructive and supportive role in this regard. It can be a catalyst for new policy consensuses, high level coordination and creative partnerships. They can boost government action and transform capital market and financial flows,

What are Brazil's expectations from the October BRICS Summit and what are areas of coordination with India under BRICS?
The Kazan Summit in October will be the first following BRICS expansion, which welcomed Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as full members after the 2023 Johannesburg Summit. The Russian presidency has done an excellent job overseeing this process.

In this respect, Brazil is confident that the Summit will reaffirm the main tenets of the group’s fruitful collaboration under the pillars of political security; economic and financial cooperation; and cultural and people-to-people cooperation.

Furthermore, regarding the other models of expansion under discussion during Russia's BRICS Presidency, we expect that a consensus on the guiding principles, standards, criteria, and procedures for the partner country model will be reached by the Kazan Summit. For Brazil, it is important to consider the geographical balance among BRICS countries.

Brazil and India historically share common views and positions within BRICS. Our countries coordinate to preserve the cohesion of groups, particularly after its expansion. Brazil recognises that cohesion is key for BRICS’s continuing success.

The reform of multilateral institutions is another area of coordination that Brazil and India are traditionally engaged. Within BRICS, our countries strive to maintain the agreement on the comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council. We believe BRICS can contribute to strengthening multilateralism by reforming international institutions to make them more inclusive, democratic, and representative.

What are Brazil's views on BRICS partners' mechanism and proposal for new BRICS members?
The fact that this grouping has attracted the interest of so many countries is a testimony of BRICS success. I have no doubt that BRICS is a successful example of creative diplomacy and fully embodies the increasing influence of the Global South in international affairs.

As I mentioned, the partner country model is under discussion. At this stage, the group’s focus should be the agreement on the degree of participation of partner countries. Moreover, the grouping also needs time to adjust to an enlarged format and to accommodate the new members to BRICS institutions, including the New Development Bank.

What are Brazil's views on BRICS common currency and payment mechanism and how does it want to work with India on this?
In the Johannesburg Summit last year, President Lula advocated for a reference unit of account for trade, which will not replace our national currencies but will facilítate trade in local currencies. During the Foreign Ministers Meeting, held last June, we engaged in discussions about economic and financial cooperation in local currencies, as well as payment instruments and platforms. This topic will also certainly be important for Brazil’s BRICS Presidency next year. Brazil expects to keep working with India to build consensus on this issue and in many others.

What is the future of India, Brazil South Africa or IBSA in your opinion?
IBSA is another successful case of creative diplomacy within the Global South, gathering three of its most vibrant and diverse democracies. Our coordination is extremely relevant for Brazil’s foreign policy in a wide range of areas, and we will keep IBSA as a top priority, given the results obtained so far and its great potential in strengthening our ties even further.