MEA Jaishankar highlights four key pillars for boosting ties between India and Latin American countries

Supply chain diversification, resource partnerships, sharing of development experiences, and addressing global challenges are the four pillars of cooperation between India and Latin America and the Caribbean LAC region, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday highlighted four key pillars of cooperation between India and Latin America and the Caribbean LAC region viz. supply chain diversification; resource partnerships; sharing of developmental experiences; and addressing global challenges. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the 9th CII India-LAC Conclave, being organised in New Delhi by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

The External Affairs Minister said that the bilateral trade volume that reached nearly US$50 billion in 2022-23 could be doubled to US$100 billion by 2027. He noted that setting a target serves as a strong motivator to achieve great results. On supply chain diversification, Dr Jaishankar noted that cooperation in building resilient and reliable supply chains for energy security, food security and consumer security will open up a gamut of avenues for India-LAC engagements.

As India, which is currently the fifth largest economy, aims at becoming the third largest economy, the country will have rising demand for oil and gas, strategic minerals and food that could be met by LAC countries. At the same time, Indian products and services could meet the needs of the LAC region, he added in reference to resource partnership.

In regard to sharing development experiences, Dr Jaishankar said the countries of the Global South need to engage with each other more deeply in the realms of digital infrastructure and digitalisation, health solutions and infrastructure development, among other fields. He emphasised training and exchange programs as a way to further the sharing of development experiences.

Dr Jaishankar also called for India and LAC countries, and indeed the Global South as a whole, to step up cooperation for addressing global challenges related to climate change, concerns of the Global South and reform of global financial and multilateral institutions. Highlighting the importance of people-to-people interactions, Dr Jaishankar urged the two regions to arrive at mobility agreements that could help create the necessary talent pool for industries of the future. Speaking about innovative healthcare solutions, Dr Jaishankar said that India’s ‘Jan Aushadhi’ welfare scheme for making available affordable generic medicines to a wide spectrum of society is worthy of emulation in the LAC region.

Development partnership is an important facet of India-LAC relations. India has extended 35 lines of credit to LAC countries of which 21 projects have been completed, he observed. The 9th CII India-LAC Conclave reflects an upgraded engagement between the two regions. Seventeen senior ministers from the 11 LAC countries are taking part in the Conclave, which is underway from August 3 to 5 .