India, Brazil satisfied over growing cooperation and collaboration

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during their bilateral meet here on Thursday expressed satisfaction at the growing cooperation and collaboration between the two countries which have intensified in recent years.

Both the leaders also met at the 4th Summit of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum as well as the 2nd Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) Summit here on Thursday and Friday respectively and expressed their satisfaction at the continued expansion of bilateral trade in recent years which reached US$ 5.6 billion in 2009 despite the impact of the international financial crisis.

They noted, however, the need for increased efforts to achieve the bilateral trade target of US$ 10 billion by 2010 including the diversification of bilateral trade particularly in value-added sectors.

At the bilateral meeting and working lunch, Dr. Singh and President Lula held detailed discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues and renewed their commitment to strengthen the India-Brazil Strategic Partnership.

In this context, both the leaders noted the positive outcome of the Trade Monitoring Mechanism, the second meeting of which was held on 15 March 2010 in São Paulo, and the scheduling of the next meeting in October 2010 in New Delhi.

The Leaders reiterated their intent to hold the Second Meeting of the CEO Forum shortly.

Both Leaders noted that bilateral investments were growing in diverse areas. They called on business and industry in both countries to utilize the opportunities available in the areas of Energy, Agriculture, Mining, Pharmaceuticals, Infrastructure and Construction, among others to further expand bilateral investments.

Both the leaders also welcomed the coming into operation from June 2009 of the Preferential Trade Agreement between MERCOSUR and India. Besides, the two leaders reiterated the need for active enhancement of cooperation in Science and Technology, Nuclear Energy, Space and Defence for mutual benefit.

They also noted that Biotechnology, IT, Marine Science, and Nano-technology have been identified as areas with significant potential for cooperation.

The two Leaders emphasized the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation in the energy sector including in Hydrocarbons and New & Renewable energies. In this regard, they directed the Joint Working Group on energy to convene an early meeting.

Brazil welcomed the interest of Indian oil companies to participate in future ANP bidding processes for exploration of oil in conformity with its national policies in this sector. They reaffirmed their intention to encourage better coordination of their positions on the issue of Bio-fuels at multilateral fora.