New Delhi: India and Brazil agreed on Saturday to double bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2030 and signed agreements for cooperation in critical minerals and the steel supply chain as talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva focused on strengthening multilateralism in an era of turbulence and uncertainty.
Lula, in India with a delegation that includes 300 business representatives, met Modi to review bilateral ties after participating in the AI Impact Summit. He travelled to India almost six months after unveiling plans to visit the country to shore up cooperation to counter the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs. Both India and Brazil had been hit with 50% tariffs, among the highest in the world.
Modi and Lula also pledged to ramp up cooperation in areas such as defence, security, oil and gas, healthcare and digital public infrastructure while emphasising the need for deeper strategic engagement to navigate the fragmented global environment.
“Brazil is India’s largest trading partner in Latin America. We are committed to taking bilateral trade beyond $20 billion in the next five years. Our trade is not just a figure, it’s a reflection of trust,” Modi told a joint media interaction after the talks.
Two-way trade surpassed $15 billion for the first time in 2025, marking a growth of 25% over the figure for 2024. While Modi and Lula had set a bilateral trade target of $20 billion by 2030 during a meeting last July, they decided to further enhance it. P Kumaran, secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, told a media briefing: “The two leaders agreed that the trade should at least double to $30 billion by 2030.”
The two leaders also discussed US trade policy and the implications of the US Supreme Court’s judgment striking down President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs, Kumaran said. “Both leaders agreed that it’s a rather new development and both sides need to study the implications of this and wait for further developments by the US administration,” he said.
Lula said India’s prowess in IT, AI, biotechnology and space has created new opportunities for cooperation. “This translates our commitment with an agenda that places technology in service of inclusive development. Increasing investments and cooperation in renewable energy and critical minerals is at the core of the pioneering agreement that we have signed today,” he said.
Modi described the pact on rare earths as a “major step” towards building resilient supply chains and noted that cooperation in defence is continuously growing. “This is a great example of mutual trust and strategic coordination,” he said.
The Indian government is seeking new suppliers of rare earths to curb dependence on China and to support capacity expansion amid a global race for raw materials. Brazil is the second-largest producer and exporter of iron ore and holds large reserves of minerals critical for making steel, demand for which is growing in India amid rapid infrastructure expansion. Bilateral cooperation is expected to focus on attracting investment in exploration, mining and steel sector infrastructure, officials said.
The two leaders discussed the expansion of the India-Mercosur preferential trade agreement (PTA), with Modi saying this will deepen economic cooperation. Lula said the FTA recently signed by India and the European Union as a “reply to trade unilateralism” should spur efforts to expand the India-Mercosur PTA. “A turbulent global scenario requires our countries to strengthen and deepen our strategic dialogue,” Lula added.
Modi and Lula also explored potential for cooperation in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. “We will work to increase the supply of affordable and quality medicines from India to Brazil,” Modi said. Lula said India and Brazil had worked side by side for decades to “defend equal access to medicines”, especially generic medicines, and for health sovereignty at the WHO.
In the fields of defence and aeronautics, the two sides discussed cooperation for maintenance of their French-origin Scorpene submarines under a tripartite agreement between Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited and the Indian and Brazilian Navies. Modi called on Brazilian aviation major Embraer, which will set up an assembly line for its E175 regional jet in India, to also establish a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility.
Efforts to shore up global governance institutions and defence multilateralism also figured in the talks, with Modi saying the India-Brazil partnership on the global stage has been influential. “As democratic countries, we will continue to advance the priorities and aspirations of the Global South,” he said.
Lula added that India and Brazil are partners in building multilateral governance that is more just, peaceful and governed by international law. “We are not just the two biggest democracies of the Global South. This is a meeting of a digital superpower with a renewable energy superpower. We are both mega-diverse countries and we both defend multilateralism and peace,” he said.
Modi noted that India and Brazil are unanimous that “terrorism and its supporters are enemies of all humanity”, while Lula said Brazil “has repudiated the attacks in Kashmir” and terrorism must not be linked to any religion or nationality. Lula added: “We support the efforts to end the war in Ukraine. It is also urgent and important to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
Besides the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for cooperation in rare earth minerals and critical minerals and in mining for the steel supply chain, India and Brazil firmed up a joint action plan on Digital Partnership for the Future, agreements for cooperation in the coastal sector and MSME entrepreneurship and crafts, and an MoU between the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency and the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation of India.