South Asia Monitor: Reaching Out: Trade Boost India-Brazil Ties - June 6, 2007

June 8, 2007

Latin America has not figured highly on India's diplomatic agenda. But Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's ongoing visit to India - the second visit of the Brazilian leader to India in three years - is seen as crucial for both countries. Steady economic growth over the past decade has caused a sharp spike in India's energy requirements. As a result, India is looking beyond the Middle East, in places like Brazil and Venezuela, to diversify its oil supplies, strengthen trade ties, and diversify energy resources and relationships. At this writing, India's economic ties in Latin America are small, but its thinking on the emerging relationship with the largest and most sophisticated of the developing countries is becoming increasingly ambitious. The greatest potential of these ties may lie in India's multilateral diplomacy.