A meeting between His Excellency Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and His Excellency Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, took place in New Delhi on September 10, 2023, in conjunction with the G20 Summit.
Both presidents emphasised that the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Brazil and India, which will be commemorated in 2023, was a milestone that was made possible by shared values and goals, such as the pursuit of peace, collaboration, and sustainable development. They reaffirmed their dedication to advancing the Brazil-India Strategic Partnership and upholding their unique positions in international affairs. Both parties expressed satisfaction with the advancements made through various institutional avenues for communication.
The two leaders reaffirmed their support for a comprehensive overhaul of the Security Council, including its expansion in the permanent and non-permanent categories, with increased representation of developing nations in both, in order to increase its effectiveness, legitimacy, representativeness, and efficiency in order to better address current threats to international peace and security. They reaffirmed their shared support for the permanent participation of their nations in a bigger UNSC.
Brazil and India will continue to collaborate closely under the G-4 and L.69 frameworks, according to the leaders. Additionally, they decided to have frequent bilateral coordination talks regarding Security Council Reform. The intergovernmental negotiations on reforming the UN Security Council have stalled and the two leaders expressed dissatisfaction that there has been no real progress. They concurred that it is now time to transition to a method that is results-focused and works to produce tangible results in a predetermined amount of time.
PM Modi hailed President Lula's declaration that Brazil would support India's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2028–2029 term.
The importance of a just and equitable energy transition was underlined by both leaders. They emphasised the critical role that flex-fuel cars and biofuels play in helping to decarbonize the transportation sector, particularly in developing countries. They applauded bilateral bioenergy projects combining the public and private sectors and welcomed the launch of the Global Biofuels Alliance, of which both nations are founding members, during India's G20 chairmanship.
Both leaders agree that addressing climate change is one of the biggest issues of our time and is necessary for sustainable development as well as measures to end hunger and poverty. The two nations agree to strengthen global governance under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), its Kyoto Protocol, and its Paris Agreement by widening, intensifying, and diversifying their bilateral climate cooperation. They also agree to cooperate to make sure the UNFCCC multilateral process from COP28 to COP30 pave the way for a course correction on climate while bringing the international community together around the Convention's ultimate goal and the goals of its Paris Agreement, in the light of equity and the best available science, taking into account the gravity and sense of urgency emanating from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Sixth Assessment Report. They reaffirmed their commitment to improving the multilateral response to climate change in a way that also addresses inequities within and between countries, especially by collaborating more closely with China and the BASIC Group of nations as well as the Group of 77. India welcomes Brazil's presidency of BASIC and completely endorses Brazil's potential presidency of the COP30, the UNFCCC's 30th Conference of the Parties, in 2025. Both nations also concurred to expand cooperation initiatives with the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in third-party nations.
In order to protect the food and nutritional security of both their respective nations and the entire globe, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to increasing cooperation in sustainable agriculture and rural development, especially at the multilateral level. They did this by highlighting their responsibilities as important global food producers. They emphasised the need of open, unhindered, and reliable food supply chains and urged the international community to prevent unilateral limitations and protectionist policies from having an impact on agricultural commerce while properly taking into account multilateral trade regulations. The creation of Joint Technical Committees to promote commerce in agricultural and animal husbandry products was welcomed by the two presidents.
The leaders acknowledged the recent rise in bilateral trade and investment, and they concurred that given the size of their respective economies and the possibility for forming industrial alliances, economic ties between Brazil and India have room to grow.
Both presidents resolved to cooperate towards the extension of the India-Mercosur PTA during Brazil's Mercosur Presidency in order to realise the full potential of this economic partnership. They expressed satisfaction over the expanding commerce between India and Mercosur.
They praised the creation of the India-Brazil Business Forum as a venue specifically for inter-sector cooperation.
The presidents commended India and Brazil for their increasing defence cooperation, which includes participation in military drills, the exchange of high-level defence delegations, and a significant industry presence at each other's defence expos. The leaders urged the defence industry on both sides to start collaborative projects and investigate new opportunities for collaboration in order to co-produce technologically cutting-edge defence products and strengthen supply chains.
The leaders observed with satisfaction that domestic procedures for the India-Brazil Social Security Agreement's implementation had been completed.
President Lula commended Prime Minister Modi and India for the historic feats of Chandrayaan-3's landing in the southern polar area of the Moon and Aditya-L1's successful launch, both of which represent significant turning points in space exploration.
The leaders pledged to promote higher-level conversations among the three IBSA partners as they commemorated the 20th anniversary of the IBSA Forum. They also reaffirmed the strategic importance of IBSA in defending and advancing the interests of the Global South on the international stage, including at multilateral and plurilateral bodies. PM Modi offered Brazil's IBSA Chairship his unwavering support.
Both leaders praised the favourable outcomes of the recent BRICS summit in South Africa, particularly the reaffirmed and stronger support for the UN Security Council reform and the invitations offered to six nations to join BRICS as full members.
In addition to congratulating PM Modi on India's successful G20 presidency, President Lula promised close cooperation with India during Brazil's G20 leadership, which will begin in December 2023. Both leaders appreciated the G20's successive presidencies by developing nations, which increased the influence of the Global South on global governance. They were pleased to see that the three IBSA nations formed a G20 troika under Brazil's presidency.
