Vice President and Minister of Development, Industry, Trade and Services of Brazil, Geraldo Alckmin reached New Delhi this afternoon on a three day visit to India. He will hold inaugural Trade Ministerial Review Meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal tomorrow.
During the three day visit, Mr Alckmin is scheduled to meet Vice President CP Radhakrishnan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri and discuss various issues of mutual interest.
Our correspondent reports that Brazil is the largest trade partner of India in South America. During the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Brazil, the leaders agreed to establish a Ministerial-level Review Mechanism to foster trade and investment, and set a bilateral trade target of 20 billion dollars in the next five years.
The visit is envisaged to provide an opportunity to review bilateral trade and investment, identify new priority sectors, set a road map towards achieving the trade target and further strengthen the multifaceted Strategic Partnership.
Extending a warm welcome to the visiting leader, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in a post on X wrote, “Adding momentum to the India-Brazil Strategic Partnership. Mr Geraldo Alckmin, Vice-President and Minister of Development, Industry, Trade and Services of Brazil has arrived in New Delhi.”
During his visit, Alckmin is scheduled to meet Vice President C P Radhakrishnan, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Puri to discuss various issues of mutual interest. He is also expected to attend the India-Brazil Business Forum and visit the All India Institute of Ayurveda.
“Brazil is the largest trade partner of India in South America. During the recent State visit of Prime Minister Modi to Brazil, the leaders agreed to establish a Ministerial-level Review Mechanism to foster our trade and investment, and set a bilateral trade target of USD 20 billion in the next five years,” read a statement issued by the MEA.
“The visit of Mr. Alckmin is envisaged to provide an opportunity to review bilateral trade and investment, identify new priority sectors, set a road map towards achieving the trade target and further strengthen the multifaceted Strategic Partnership,” it added.
The visit also comes just days after India and Brazil discussed a roadmap to take bilateral trade to USD 20 billion in five years during the seventh meeting of the India-Brazil Trade Monitoring Mechanism (TMM), which was held on October 7.
Rajesh Agrawal, Commerce Secretary, and Tatiana Lacerda Prazeres, Secretary of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services for Brazil, co-chaired the meeting.
During the meeting in the national capital, both sides extensively discussed matters related to bilateral trade and outlined a roadmap for taking it forward.
The discussions included a review of bilateral trade and investment relations, expansion of India-MERCOSUR PTA, market access issues, visa issues, sectoral collaborations in pharmaceuticals and healthcare, chemicals and petrochemicals, MSME, banking and finance, promotion of industries and internal trade, multilateral issues and other matters of mutual interest.