India’s footprint has been steadily growing in Latin America. Prime Minister Modi’s visits to Brazil, Argentina and Trinidad and Tobago from July 2-9 mark a turning point in New Delhi’s outreach towards Latin America and the Caribbean. Can it become a gamechanger?
There’s a six decade-old history to the India-Latin America exchange. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had visited Mexico in November 1961. Nehru’s visit paved the way for several Latin American countries to conclude bilateral trade agreements with India. Argentine President Arturo Fondizi and Mexican President Lopez Mateo visited India shortly thereafter in December 1961 and October 1962 respectively. However, that was a phase of geographic fatalism and hemispheric solidarity in Latin America vis-à-vis the U.S. and India had its own constraints in reaching out to distant Latin America lest it antagonised the U.S.
In 1968, Nehru’s daughter Prime Minister Indira Gandhi undertook a tour of 10 Latin American and Caribbean countries. To her, it was a ‘voyage of discovery.’ As she described it, her visit was intended to establish a “concord with people who are strangers to us.”[1]
Mrs Gandhi delivered 35 formal addresses. Her trip created considerable interest in India given the media coverage, but there were no follow-up visits. This was largely due to the decade of military coups, political convulsions and American interventions of the 1960s that Latin America experienced. India preferred to wait and watch.
Other visits by Indian prime ministers to Latin America were to attend global summits. Narasimha Rao attended the G15 Summit in Caracas in November 1991 and the Earth Summit in Rio Janeiro in June 1992. Manmohan Singh attended the IBSA Summit in Brazil in 2006 and the BRICS Summit in Brazil in 2010 and Narendra Modi, the BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil in 2014 and the G20 Summit in Argentina in 2018. PM Modi visited Guyana in 2024 and co-chaired the second India-CARICOM Summit.
Modi’s July 8 visit to Brazil saw the broadening of strategic ties in trade, energy, agriculture, health, defence and space. It included discussions on health and pharma, space and digital public infrastructure.[2] India-Brazil bilateral trade was nearly[3] $13 billion in 2024– with the goal to reach $20 billion over the next five years.
Modi’s Argentina trip was equally significant, the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Argentina in 57 years. The two countries called for enhancing cooperation in critical minerals – Argentina is part of the ‘lithium triangle’ which runs along the Andes mountains with Bolivia and Chile, one of the world’s richest reserves with 75% of global supply.[4] This is particularly useful for India’s auto and tech industry. There were discussions on oil and gas, defence, nuclear energy, agriculture, technology.
Outside of the Prime Minister, high officials from both sides have been regularly visiting each other. Then Argentinian President, Mauricio Macri visited India in February 2019. In July 2023, Argentina’s Defence Minister Jorge Enrique Taiana undertook a four-day trip to India. Argentina’s foreign minister Diana Mondino came to India from October 5-9, 2024, accompanied by a 17-member business delegation. A Joint Commission Meeting was also held, which discussed the “entire spectrum of bilateral relations with a focus on leveraging each country’s strengths for mutual benefit.”[5] The August 2022 trip to Buenos Aires by India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, further strengthened the bilateral strategic partnership.
In January 2024, Indian public sector company Khanij Bidesh India Ltd (KABIL) signed an agreement with Catamarca Minera Y Energética Sociedad Del Estado (CAMYEN) to acquire five lithium brine blocks in Argentina. This is marked[6] the first lithium exploration and mining project by a government-owned Indian company, for $22.8 million.
If India has started blipping on the Latin American radar, it is thanks to these greater political engagements as well as the efforts of Indian enterprises It is clearly a case of trade follows the flag and the flag follows trade.
For the Indian I.T. companies, Latin America has become a strategic hub and they are using its presence in the region for their global operations. These serve the region but also provide a bridge between their domestic market and the North American one, a major source of revenue.
Indian companies have been looking at Latin America as the next investment destination, evident by the $12 billion investment in sectors such as I.T., pharmaceuticals, energy, mining, manufacturing and agro-chemicals over the last 15 years.
The Commerce Ministry’s Focus LAC programme (an initiative to enhance trade with Latin America and the Caribbean region) created new opportunities for greater engagements with the region. India has been engaged with CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) to boost its ties – India was the first country to initiate a dialogue mechanism with CELAC in September 2011. The India-CELAC Foreign Ministers meetings have taken place in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2022.
It’s vital for India to deepen its Latin American engagement. The significant competitor is China, which has become a big player through a growing commercial exchange, strategic investments and an expanding diplomatic and cultural presence. Greater engagement with China has allowed Latin America to reduce its dependence on Western markets. The inauguration of the mega port of Chancay in Peru on November 15, 2024, a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),[7] is seen as a gamechanger as it will reroute trade bypassing the Panama Canal. China is a major source of both foreign direct investment and energy and infrastructure lending, including through its massive BRI projects. In May 2025, China hosted Latin American and Caribbean leaders at a summit in Beijing, where Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a $9 billion investment credit line for the region.
China has established robust ties with Latin America and trade has registered a thirty-five-fold increase since 2000. In comparison, India’s security and defence ties are still peripheral.
In 2010, the Inter-American Development Bank published a report India: Latin America’s Next Big Thing. It noted then that “the fundamentals exist for a strong relationship between the two regions. Latin America has the natural resources that India needs to grow and thrive.”[8] But governments of both sides of the relationship “have yet to effectively address the most obvious and serious obstacles to bilateral trade.”[9] A decade and a half later, this potential has still not been fulfilled.
India has certainly expanded commercial exchanges. But strategic investment needs to grow with a multifaceted strategy that blends economic engagement with public diplomacy and increasing official visits at higher political levels. A ‘one -size-fits-all’ continental policy cannot be adopted towards the Latin America region which, like India, has wide diversity and unequal growth.
Ash Narain Roy is an author specialising in Latin American affairs. He was a visiting scholar at El Colegio de México from 1980 to 1984 and Assistant Editor at The Hindustan Times from 1990 to 2001. He is the former Director of the Institute of Social Sciences, Delhi.
This article was exclusively written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. You can read more exclusive content here.
Support our work here.
For permission to republish, please contact outreach@gatewayhouse.in
©Copyright 2025 Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. All rights reserved. Any unauthorised copying or reproduction is strictly prohibited.
References:
[1] India draws closer to Latin America. New Delhi. Indian Society for Latin America. Daulatsingh. Published 1983. Page 20
[2] Ministry of External Affairs (India). “Prime Minister Meets with the President of Brazil, July 08, 2025.” Press Releases. Government of India, July 8, 2025. https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/39784/Prime_Minister_meets_with_the_President_of_Brazil_July_08_2025
[3] Consulate General of India, São Paulo. “India–Brazil Trade Overview.” Accessed 2025. https://www.cgisaopaulo.gov.in/india-brazil-trade-overview.php
[4] Ministry of External Affairs (India). Brazil: Foreign Relations — June 2025. PDF booklet. New Delhi: Government of India, 2025. https://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/BrazilJune2025.pdf
[5] Presidency of the Republic of Brazil (Planalto). “Lula Celebrates Results of His Visit to China: ‘Our Relationship Is Very Strategic.’” News release, May 14, 2025. https://www.gov.br/planalto/en/latest-news/2025/05/lula-celebrates-results-of-his-visit-to-china-201cour-relationship-is-very-strategic201d
[6] Ministry of External Affairs (India). “Prime Minister Meets with President Javier Milei of Argentina.” News Update, July 5, 2025. https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/39764/Prime+Minister+meets+with+President+Javier+Milei+of+Argentina
[7] Press Information Bureau (India). India Signs Agreement for Lithium Exploration & Mining Project in Argentina, 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1996380.
[8] Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 2010. India: Latin America’s Next Big Thing? Washington. IDB, p.137
[9] Siddiqui, Huma. “Latin America: A Strategic Hub for Indian IT Companies.” The Financial Express, September 28, 2024. https://www.financialexpress.com/business/industry/latin-america-a-strategic-hub-for-indian-it-companies/3624659/