New Delhi, June 30
As India continues to march ahead in pursuit of defence indigenisation and self-reliance, Brazil has shown keen interest in acquiring indigenous defence innovations, discussions on which are likely to be held during Prime Minister's Narendra Modi's visit to the Latin American nation starting July 6, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Monday.
"Yes, there are going to be discussions on defence cooperation and enhancing it with Brazil. We are looking at avenues for joint research, technology sharing, and training exchanges. We are still in talks about what kind of cooperation is possible and what kind of defence platforms we can sell to Brazil, but there has not been much progress yet. Broadly, we have identified a few areas that seem to be of interest to the Brazilian side," MEA's Secretary East P. Kumaran told reporters during a media briefing ahead of PM's visit.
PM Modi will be on a five-nation visit starting July 2. He will be arriving in Rio de Janeiro for the 17th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in the fourth leg of his visit after Ghana (July 2-3), Trinidad and Tobago (July 3-4) and Argentina (July 4-5).
After attending the BRICS Summit at the invitation of Brazillian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, PM Modi will travel to Brasilia for the State Visit and will hold bilateral discussions on the broadening of the strategic partnership between the two countries in areas of mutual interest, including trade, defence, energy, space, technology, agriculture, health and people-to-people linkages.
"They (Brazil) are interested in secured communication systems on the battlefield, they are also interested in Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). Brazil has Scorpene submarines, they are interested in partnering with us in maintaining those submarines. They also seem to be interested in the Akash Air Defence Systems and Coastal Surveillance System, Garuda Artillery Guns. They are also interested in defence industry joint ventures with us, joint R&D and co-development of systems. We also use the Embraer platform to develop reconnaissance systems on top of that.. So, there is a lot of potential for us to work with Brazil given their strength in aircraft industry in general," Secretary Kumaran said on Monday.
India and Brazil have been involved in joint collaboration to develop Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft besides Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace company, and Mahindra signing an MoU to collaborate on the C-390 Millennium multi-mission transport aircraft.
Like several other nations, including from Latin America, Brazil too has been showing a keen interest in acquiring Indian defence equipment as the government led by Prime Minister Modi has transformed the country's defence capabilities over the past 11 years.
India's defence exports crossed the record figure of about Rs 24,000 crore in Financial Year 2024-25 with the government aiming at increasing the figure to Rs 50,000 crore by 2029.
With PM Modi and President Lula having met four times since 2023, strategic partners India and Brazil have consolidated bilateral ties through several institutional mechanisms including Joint Commission Meeting, Strategic Dialogue, Foreign Office Consultations, Trade Monitoring Mechanism and other joint working groups.
Prime Minister Modi visited Brazil in November 2024 for the G20 Summit and the forthcoming trip to the country would be the fourth visit of Prime Minister since 2014.
President Lula had also extended support against terrorism during a telephonic call with Prime Minister Modi on last month, following the heinous April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
- IANS
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