India and Brazil took a significant step to strengthen bilateral trade on Saturday, signing a pact aimed at expanding cooperation in mining and minerals. The agreement, inked during Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s three-day visit to New Delhi, is intended to help India secure critical raw materials for steel production and support capacity expansion amid a global race for resources.
Brazil, one of the world’s top iron ore producers and holder of large reserves of other steelmaking minerals, will collaborate with India on investment in exploration, mining, and steel sector infrastructure. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the talks focused on deepening the trade partnership, with ambitions to raise bilateral trade well beyond the current $15 billion level to over $20 billion in the next five years. Modi also emphasized cooperation in technology, innovation, digital public infrastructure, AI, and semiconductors.
India currently has a steelmaking capacity of 218 million metric tons, and domestic output is expanding to meet growing demand driven by industrialization and infrastructure development. The new agreement is expected to improve India’s access to raw materials and technologies necessary to sustain long-term growth in its steel sector, according to an Indian government statement.
India and Brazil have maintained a strategic partnership since 2006, spanning trade, defense, energy, agriculture, health, critical minerals, and digital infrastructure. Brazil is India’s largest trading partner in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the two nations cooperate on global issues including U.N. reform, climate change, and counter-terrorism. President Lula also suggested conducting trade in local currencies instead of U.S. dollars, though he dismissed speculation about a common currency for BRICS nations, of which both India and Brazil are members.
