Argentina talks with India on BRICS accession and strengthening the global South

Argentine President Alberto Fernández received today at Government House Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, with whom he discussed the possibility of the South American country joining the BRICS platform (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and the importance of strengthening the global South.

A statement from the Argentine Foreign Ministry said that during the meeting, the parties discussed “the progress of the bilateral agenda” and the “highlights of regional and global events.”

After the bilateral meeting, Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero held a joint conference with his Indian counterpart, highlighting the bilateral relationship.

“We have cultivated a relationship of hard work and cooperation during this period,” the Argentine foreign minister said.

Cafiero stressed that “today India is Argentina’s fourth largest trading partner, and last year we reached a trading volume of US$6 billion.”

“We are making progress not only in food production and exports but also in all areas of the technology industry and nuclear technology in medicine,” he added.

He stressed that “one of the topics of conversation was the possibility of Argentina joining the BRICS to strengthen an agenda of the global South that is not located in the polarities that currently span the world.”

Between Argentina and India, “there are many similarities that allow us to move forward not only economically but also politically,” Cafiero said.

For his part, Jaishankar said that during the meeting, the parties discussed “a wide range of issues and ways to intensify our economic cooperation.”

“We are already Argentina’s fourth largest trading partner, and we can cover many more areas that we can expand. We also talked about defense. India is now one of the world’s largest exporters of defense equipment. We would like to see how this can feed into our cooperation with Argentina,” he said.

Jaishankar pointed out that “nuclear energy is one of the sectors in which we cooperate internationally, and we would like to develop this cooperation further.”

“Given the current situation and the polarization that is taking place, countries like India and Argentina with independent views can address the situation more closely. We can work together, especially in the global South, on energy and food security issues,” the Indian foreign minister said.