Introduction
In 2025, India’s strategic engagement with Latin America reached previously unheard-of heights thanks to a calculated and comprehensive diplomatic offensive that placed a high priority on strengthening bilateral ties with important countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. In addition to using multilateral platforms like “BRICS, G20, and the India-MERCOSUR framework to amplify shared Global South priorities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visits to these nations his first solo trip to Argentina in 57 years, a high-profile state visit to Brazil, and active follow-up engagements with Chile were the driving forces behind this surge” (Economic Diplomacy Division, July 2025: Online). With supply chain disruptions, energy shifts, and geopolitical realignments requiring diverse partnerships beyond traditional Western or Indo-Pacific allies, these initiatives took place against the backdrop of a rapidly changing multipolar world order, positioning India as a counterweight to Sino-centric influences in the hemisphere.
These relationships went beyond rhetoric to produce real progress in the areas of economic integration, defence interoperability, technological convergence, and sustainable development agendas. They were rooted in historical affinities, such as India’s non-aligned solidarity during Latin America’s decolonisation struggles and mutual advocacy for reformed global institutions. A sophisticated civilizational diplomacy approach that prioritises equitable, value-driven partnerships based on indigenous knowledge systems, mutual sovereignty, and “South-South cooperation is reflected in the sharp increase in bilateral trade volumes, with India-Latin America commerce surpassing $45 billion by mid-2025 (Sahni, 2016:380). In line with New Delhi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision and the Global South’s pursuit of strategic autonomy, this expansion expanded India’s import sources for vital minerals and agri-commodities while also creating export opportunities for pharmaceuticals, digital infrastructure, and green technologies.
India’s transformation from a peripheral actor to a crucial partner in Latin America was highlighted by Modi’s personalised diplomacy, which included diaspora engagements and joint declarations detailing ten-year roadmaps. This helped to build resilience against global shocks like trade protectionism and climate volatility. Scholarly frameworks, such as those that examine how India’s “distance acquaintance” developed into strategic convergence, demonstrate how these connections represent a Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam civilizational ethos, the world as one family tailored to the geopolitics of the twenty-first century. By year’s end, agreements including defence contracts, tech Memorandums of Understanding, and CEPA negotiations heralded a new era of increased interdependence and promised steady growth in India’s portfolio of civilizational diplomacy.
India-Brazil Strategic Partnership
“During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic state visit to Brasília in July 2025, India and Brazil raised their long-standing strategic partnership, which was codified in 2006” (PIB, July 2025: online) to previously unheard-of levels, marking a turning point in South-South relations.
A detailed joint statement detailing a ten-year roadmap based on five mutually reinforcing pillars: defence and security, food security, energy transition, digital transformation, and industrial cooperation was the result of the visit. By addressing current issues like supply chain vulnerabilities and climate imperatives, this framework positions both countries as anchors of Global South resilience while also building on historical synergies like shared non-aligned movement legacies and BRICS collaboration.
“Brazil’s oil and mineral exports, combined with India’s pharmaceuticals and automobiles, dominated bilateral trade, which reached $12.2 billion in FY 2024–2025” (PIB, Oct 2025: online). Leaders established an ambitious $20 billion aim over five years. In order to enable finance for infrastructure and pharma localisation, strategies include the removal of non-tariff barriers, the establishment of a Brazil-India Business Council, and the opening of an Exim Bank of India branch in São Paulo. In addition to “India’s involvement in Brazil’s Tropical Forests Forever Fund ahead of COP30 in Belém, in biofuels through the Global Biofuels Alliance, with cooperative R&D on sustainable aviation fuels and flex-fuel vehicles”, it helps to build the new structure in the environmental context (PIB, Oct 2025: online).
India- Argentina Relations
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 2025 visit to Buenos Aires, which commemorated the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties established in 1948, was a historic occasion, the first prime ministerial trip in 57 years” (The Geostrata, March: online) reaffirming and revitalising the strategic partnership across defence, energy, critical minerals, and pharmaceuticals. In the midst of Argentina’s economic reforms under President Javier Milei, this high-level engagement addressed modern imperatives, including supply chain resilience and green energy transitions, while building on a foundation of 38 previous agreements encompassing diplomacy, trade, culture, and science.
Important results were agreements to extend the India-MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), which has enabled duty reductions on more than 450 lines since 2009, and the establishment of a collaborative agriculture working group to improve food security and biotech exchanges. Argentina’s exports of lithium, soybean oil, and agri-commodities, along with India’s pharmaceuticals, cars, and IT services, drove bilateral trade to $5.23 billion in 2024, double from prior years.
While lithium Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) strengthened green supply chains essential for India’s aspirations for electric vehicles and batteries, focus areas expanded to defence co-development and technology transfers, possibly including joint ventures in aircraft and marine patrol. Argentina’s financial industry is expected to be modernised by digital health efforts and UPI development, emulating India’s exports of digital public infrastructure to the Global South.
On decolonisation problems like the Malvinas (Falklands), where India’s neutral UN posture supports Argentina’s sovereignty claims and fosters stronger political trust, scholarly publications, such as those assessing foreign policy alignment, show synergies. Economic cooperation places a high priority on reciprocal investments and trade simplification through reduced non-tariff barriers and streamlined customs. Indian companies are interested in Argentina’s renewable energy and agro-processing industries.
India- Chile Partnerships
Building on the 2007 Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), India-Chile ties made significant progress toward a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2025, with terms of reference inked in May and fast-track negotiations aimed at year-end finalisation. While the 9th Foreign Office Consultations in November further strengthened cooperation in trade, investment, connectivity, health, and pharmaceuticals, President Gabriel Boric’s April 2025 visit to India reaffirmed high-level commitments in critical minerals, agriculture, digital infrastructure, railways, and space cooperation.
In line with Chile’s Pacific-facing perspective and India’s multipolar diplomacy, these developments signify a shift from rhetorical solidarity to concrete strategic involvement. “The expansion is emphasised in bilateral trade, which is valued at more than $3 billion a year under the PTA” (Ministry of External Affairs, Nov 2025: online).
Chile seeks Indian investments in infrastructure, renewable energy, and metro projects while prioritising agricultural exports like avocados and cherries, along with copper and lithium, which are essential for India’s green transition. In the face of global supply chain disruptions, the CEPA talks, which cover commodities, services, rules of origin, and beneficiation provisions, allow India to process Chile’s essential minerals locally for the production of solar and electric vehicles (EVs). In the Indo-Pacific, where Chile’s Antarctic ambitions collide with India’s SAGAR doctrine, space sector Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) promote satellite data exchange and collaborative operations, improving marine domain awareness.
Conclusion
The title “Latin America Rising,” which denotes the region’s strategic rise in New Delhi’s foreign policy calculus amid multipolar flux, is best shown by India’s 2025 engagements with Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Beyond symbolic gestures, Prime Minister Modi’s transformative visits, which culminated in five-pillar roadmaps with Brazil, historic reaffirmations with Argentina, and CEPA acceleration with Chile, produced $20 billion in trade targets, defence agreements, lithium supply chains, and exports of digital infrastructure that expanded India’s partnerships beyond conventional channels. By promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat through vital minerals, biofuels, and UPI proliferation, these connections, which were based on a common Global South ethos and civilizational diplomacy, opposed Sino-centric supremacy.
References
https://www.mea.gov.in/pressreleases.htm?dtl%2F40275%2F9th+IndiaChile+Foreign+Office+Consultations
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