India and Brazil step up ties, eyeing bigger roles in the Global South through trade, climate cooperation, and strategic alignment.
The timing of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s visit to Brazil for the 17th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) Summit in July 2025 marked a critical juncture for a variety of reasons. Primarily, weaving in another Latin American country—Argentina—it signalled New Delhi’s intent to deepen strategic ties with the key Global South actors, aligning with its broader interests in advancing South-South cooperation. Second, the visit may have gained even more significance post-facto, given the 50 percent tariffs announced by the United States (US) on Brazil and its consequent desire to diversify. Finally, India and Brazil find themselves similarly positioned on most global issues, including the most urgent reforms of the global institutions. Given the intensification of conflicts around the world, the strain in the international order, which is marked by instability and a breakdown of multilateral consensus, perhaps it is the best time to strengthen the India-Brazil axis. The visit itself was a step in the right direction to achieve that goal. Keeping in line with the tradition, PM Modi engaged with members of the Indian diaspora upon his arrival, underscoring the importance of cultural and people-to-people ties in India's foreign policy outreach.
Despite being geographically distant, India and Brazil share significant historical and structural similarities.
The summit and PM Modi’s visit highlight the growing convergence of Brazil and India’s interests. Their engagement served as a testimony to the Global South’s significance and the need for enhanced cooperation among its member countries. The BRICS Summit theme—“Strengthening Global South Cooperation for a More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance”—captured the sentiment for a more equitable and representative global order. Furthermore, the vision of a collaborative Global South is especially relevant in light of recent challenges faced by Brazil. The country is grappling with economic headwinds from the Trump administration’s trade policies. As Brazil seeks to diversify its trade and investment partners, India emerges as a promising counterpart.
Despite being geographically distant, India and Brazil share significant historical and structural similarities. Their connections began with the Portuguese Empire’s overseas expansion in the sixteenth century, spreading elements of both Brazilian and Indian flora to each continent. Both countries are relatively young democracies, multicultural, and continental in size, possessing large domestic markets. India and Brazil each underwent state-led industrialisation processes that are among the most significant in the 20th century for balancing the mercantilist global capitalist system of the West. Their industrialisation fostered capabilities in strategic sectors such as pharmaceuticals and aerospace, developed well-organised sectoral innovation systems, particularly in agriculture, and established national programmes to promote domestic industry, creating fertile ground for future cooperation.
However, in Brazil’s case, these advancements co-exist with socio-economic challenges. According to the World Bank criteria, approximately 28 percent of Brazil’s population lives below the poverty line. While the scale may differ, cities of both countries face mounting infrastructural pressures, which call for an urgent need to improve productivity and access to land for family farming. These sectors present promising grounds for cooperation between Brazil and India, rooted in common development goals. Such collaboration could serve as a benchmark for broader Global South engagement. Strategic Cooperation PM Modi’s visit outlined six pillars for further deepening India-Brazil cooperation over the next decade: defence, food security, energy transition, climate change mitigation, digitalisation and emerging technologies, and strategic industrial partnerships. As a part of this renewed engagement, 12 agreements and memoranda were signed during the recent visit by PM Modi, covering sectors such as combating terrorism and organised crime, exchanging digital solutions, collaborating on renewable energy technologies, agricultural research cooperation, classified information protection, and an intellectual property cooperation memorandum.
As major developing economies, India and Brazil bring unique capacities and leadership to South-South cooperation. Their initiatives—especially in renewable energy, digital innovation, and agricultural research—not only reflect domestic priorities but can also serve as scalable models of growth in the Global South pertaining to climate resilience.
Trade and investment goals were equally ambitious. In addition to expanding the bilateral trade agreement between MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and India, both countries aim to strengthen ties across their aerospace industries. A target has been set to increase bilateral trade to US$20 billion over the next five years — up from the current US$12 billion. This involves formulating strategic agreements across critical manufacturing sectors, with a particular focus on value chain development in pharmaceuticals, defence equipment, mining, mineral exploitation and the oil and gas industries.
A key focus of the India-Brazil axis is energy transition and climate change. While there is already some existing collaboration in the field of bioenergy and biofuels between the two countries, this visit stressed the need for continued engagement in the Global Biofuel Alliance. The emphasis on the urgent need for clean, sustainable, just, affordable, and inclusive energy transitions, advocating for technology-neutral and integrated approaches using diverse low-emission sources, fuels, and technologies, cannot be missed from the bilateral ties anymore. Brazil also launched the Tropical Forests Forever Fund ahead of COP30. A MoU on Cooperation in Renewable Energy was also signed, highlighting the importance accorded to energy transition and climate resilience. As major developing economies, India and Brazil bring unique capacities and leadership to South-South cooperation. Their initiatives—especially in renewable energy, digital innovation, and agricultural research—not only reflect domestic priorities but can also serve as scalable models of growth in the Global South pertaining to climate resilience.
The BRICS grouping currently accounts for approximately 48 percent of the world’s population and 40 percent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As the BRICS economies promote mutual economic growth, they create significant potential to boost international trade within the group. Greater intra-bloc trade, led by major partners such as India and Brazil, can help balance the bloc’s internal trade flows and reduce dependency on China-centric trade platforms. Notably, the absence of political tensions between India and Brazil positions them as pivotal actors in building a more symmetrical and diversified BRICS economic landscape.
Greater intra-bloc trade, led by major partners such as India and Brazil, can help balance the bloc’s internal trade flows and reduce dependency on China-centric trade platforms.
At a time when multilateralism faces headwinds, reinforcing relationships among countries of the Global South is essential for building a more inclusive and balanced global order. To achieve this, these countries must engage more closely, broadening bilateral exchanges and strategic collaborations. Brazil and India can lead the way by establishing partnerships, institutionalising mechanisms to strengthen cooperation in domains where countries have common interests. The BRICS summit and the bilateral meeting between Modi and Lula have set the stage for strengthening the Global South cooperation and present a semblance of stability in these chaotic times.
Marco Antonio Rocha is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Economics at the University of Campinas.
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Marco Antonio Rocha is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Economics at the University of Campinas (IE/Unicamp; Brazil), a Researcher at the Centre of ...
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