Brazil's president Lula da ⁠Silva to visit India next week: MEA

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil in New Delhi next week, when the two leaders will discuss ways to meet the target they themselves set for raising the annual bilateral trade from $12.20 billion in 2024-25 to $20 billion over the next five years.

Lula will visit New Delhi to attend the second AI Impact Summit. He will have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 21.

The two leaders will review the bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest, including cooperation in multilateral fora, reformed multilateralism, global governance and issues concerning the Global South, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said.

Lula is expected to be accompanied by about 14 ministers and a large delegation of the CEOs of the top companies of Brazil. The accompanying ministers would be having meetings with their Indian counterparts.

“India and Brazil share a warm, close and multi-faceted Strategic Partnership, rooted in shared democratic values, close people-to-people ties and expanding cooperation across key sectors. The two large democracies have been Strategic Partners since 2006,” the MEA stated on Thursday. “Brazil is India’s largest trading partner in LAC region and bilateral engagement has continued to deepen in areas such as trade and investment, defence, energy, agriculture, health and pharmaceuticals, energy, including renewables, critical minerals, rare earth materials, science and technology and innovation, including in cooperation in the field of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and AI, space and people-to-people linkages. The two countries share common views on various international issues, including UN reforms, climate change and combating terrorism.”

Jaiswal said that the state visit of Lula to New Delhi and his meeting with Modi would provide an opportunity for both sides to chart a forward-looking agenda for further strengthening bilateral strategic partnership and further deepen cooperation across bilateral, regional and global platforms, on issues of mutual interest.