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Embassy of India
Brasilia
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India and Brazil share a close and multifaceted relationship, elevated to Strategic Partnership in 2006, based on a common global vision, shared democratic values and commitment to foster inclusive economic growth. Both countries also enjoy excellent cooperation in plurilateral fora such as BRICS, IBSA, G20, G-4, International Solar Alliance, Global Biofuel Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilience Infrastructure as well as in the larger multilateral bodies such as the UN, WTO, UNESCO and WIPO.
2. A Portuguese explorer, Pedro Alvares Cabral, landed on the East Coast of Brazil in 1500, two years after Vasco de Gama had landed in India. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Brazil and Goa, both outposts of the Portuguese imperialist empire, had bilateral exchanges that are reflected in food and dressing as well as local traditions.
3. Diplomatic relations were established in 1948, with both countries opening the embassies in the same year. India opened the Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, the erstwhile capital of Brazil, and later moved to Brasilia in 1971. India has a Consulate General in São Paulo while Brazil has one in Mumbai.
4. A remarkable, but relatively unknown facet of India-Brazil bilateral relations is that the bulk of Brazilian cattle are of Indian origin. Besides, the Brazilian TV serial called ‘Caminho das Indias’ (Path to India) released in 2009 has had a great impact in enhancing awareness of India in the minds of the Brazilian people.
5. The high-level engagements have been regularly held between the leadership of both countries. PM Modi paid a bilateral State Visit to Brasilia on 7-8 July (a State Visit after 57 years) following his visit to Rio de Janeiro from 5-7 July 2025 for participating in 17th BRICS Summit. During his visit, PM held wide ranging talks with President Lula, including trade & investment, defence and security, agriculture, energy, climate change, digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence, etc. Six Agreements/MOUs in the fields of combating international terrorism and transnational organized crime; renewable energy; digital solutions for digital transformation; intellectual property; agricultural cooperation and exchange and mutual protection of classified information, were signed during the visit. Both leaders have held several meetings on the margins of multilateral events on a very regular basis.
6. PM’s visit was followed up by the visit to India of Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (also Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services ) from 15 to 17 October. His delegation included José Múcio Monteiro Filho, Minister of Defence and Alexandre Padilha, Health Minister apart from top military leadership and seniormost members of various government agencies.
High-level Visits
7. High-level exchange of visits on basis has provided a sustained impetus to the relationship. The following VVIP visits have taken place between the two countries:
From India to Brazil |
From Brazil to India |
Dr. S. Radhakrishnan |
Mr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso, President (1996) |
Ms. Indira Gandhi |
Mr. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva |
Dr. Manmohan Singh |
Ms. Dilma Rousseff |
Ms. Pratibha Patil |
Mr. Jair Bolsonaro |
Shri Narendra Modi |
Mr. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva |
|
Mr. Geraldo Alckmin, Vice President (2025) |
Parliamentary Exchanges
8. Parliamentary exchanges are another important pillar of bilateral relations. Brazilian Parliament have nominated bilateral Parliamentary Friendship Groups in both houses, headed by Federal Deputy Vinicius Carvalho in lower house of Parliament (Deputados) and by Senator Nelson Trad in upper house.
9. Speaker Om Birla, along with Harivansh, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, visited Brasilia from 3-6 June 2025 to attend meeting of BRICS Parliamentary Forum. Speaker had bilateral meetings with Hugo Motta, President of Chamber of Deputies and Senator Rodrigo Pacheco, President of Senate. Earlier, Shri Harivansh had led a 6-member Parliamentary delegation to participate in 10th G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ (P20) Summit in Brasilia from 6-9 November 2024. He had held meeting with Senator Pacheco, President of Senate. In October 2025, Speakers of Nagaland Assembly, Meghalaya Assembly and Arunachal Pradesh Assembly visited Brazil as part of their study tours post Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.
10. A multi-party 7-member parliamentary delegation led by Dr Shashi Tharoor visited Brasilia on 1 June 2025 to brief Brazilian interlocuters on cross-border terrorism following Op-Sindoor. They met VP Geraldo Alckmin, Special Advisor to President Celso Amorim, Presidents of both Parliamentary Friendship Groups and Acting Foreign Minister.
Institutional Mechanisms
11. As Strategic Partners, India and Brazil have several Institutional mechanisms to coordinate various aspects of their bilateral relationship. This includes Joint Commission Meeting (JCM at Foreign Minister level), Strategic Dialogue (between NSAs), Foreign Office Consultations (FOC at Secretary level), Trade Monitoring Mechanism (TMM between Commerce Ministries), Economic and Financial Dialogue, Dialogue on Consular and Mobility Issues, Joint Defence Committee, Joint Committee on Science & Technology and India-Brazil Business Leaders’ Forum. The latest addition to this is the Cyber Dialogue.
12. The 9th JCM was co-chaired by EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar with his counterpart Ambassador Mauro Vieira on 27 August 2024 in New Delhi. The 2nd FOC was held in Brasilia on 20 June 2023. The 6th meeting of Strategic Dialogue was held in New Delhi on 3 October, co-chaired by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and Celso Amorim, Special Diplomatic Advisor to President Lula. The 7th meeting of Trade Monitoring Mechanism on 7 October in New Delhi was co-chaired by Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal and Brazil's Secretary of Foreign Trade, Tatiana Lacerda Prazeres. The 1st meeting of Cyber Dialogue was held in Brasilia on 26-28 November.
13. The engagement at sub-national level included the visits to India of Ronaldo Caiado, Governor of State of Goiás, from 10-21 February and Eduardo Corrêa Riedel, Governor of State of Mato Grosso do Sul on 6-8 August 2025.
Trade and Investment
14. India and Brazil continue to maintain a strong and dynamic trade relationship. In 2025, the bilateral trade grew by over 25% reaching USD 15.21 billion, vis-à-vis USD 12.20 billion in 2024. Indian exports amounted to USD 8.35 billion and imports from Brazil were USD 6.85 billion. Major Indian exports to Brazil include processed Petroleum products (diesel), Agro-chemicals (insecticides, fungicides), Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Engineering products, Textured filament yarn and Unwrought Aluminum. Brazilian exports to India included Crude oil, soybean oil, Gold (non-monetary), raw sugar, cotton, gum, wood and turpentine oils, chemicals (carboxylic acids) and iron ore and concentrates.
15. Total Indian investment in Brazil is estimated at more than USD 15 billion while Brazilian investments in India are not so significant. Major Indian companies in Brazil are Glenmark, ZydusCadila, Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories in pharmaceuticals sector; Pidilite Industries Limited in chemicals and adhesives sector; ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), BPRL in oil and gas sector; Bajaj, Tata Motors( along with newly acquired Italian Iveco), Mahindra Tractors, Royal Enfield, Hero Motors , TVS Motors in Automotive Sector; Infosys, TCS, HCL and Wipro in IT Sector. Major Brazilian companies present in India are Vale (mining), Stefanini (IT), WEG (Heavy Electrical motors/generators etc.), Compsis (Toll Road software system), Dedini (Ethanol production), Farmas Kunz (footwear), Perto (Fabrication of ATMs), Fanem (Hospital instrumentation), Embraer Aerospace.
16. Brazil ratified Investment Cooperation and Facilitation Treaty (ICFT) and Protocol amending the Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income (DTAA), in the month of October 2025, which were signed earlier on 25.01.2020 and 24.08.2022, respectively, leading to their entry into force during 2025.
Defence Cooperation
17. A defence cooperation agreement signed in 2003, was ratified in 2006, which created a Joint Defence Committee (JDC) as institutional mechanism. The 8th meeting of JDC was held in July 2025 in Brasilia. In addition, the 2+2 Political-Military dialogue was inaugurated in New Delhi in March 2024. India Brazil Focus Group on Defence Industrial cooperation also held its inaugural meeting on 8 March 2024.
18. Exchange of visits of several high level defence delegations have consistently taken place. All three Brazilian Chiefs as well as Joint Chief of Staff have visited India in the last three years. From India, Admiral Dinesh Tripathi, Chief of Naval Staff visited Brazil from 8-13 December. An MOU on Maintenance of Scorpene Class Submarines and other military ships was signed between Brazilian Navy, Indian Navy and Mazagaon Docks Ltd (MDL) on 9 December. Besides, regular visits by delegations from India’s National Defence College, College of Defence Management and Army War College, have been taken place. Conversely, Brazilian Defence Colleges have also visited India.
Space Cooperation
19. Both countries signed a framework agreement for peaceful use of outer space in 2004 as well an inter-institutional cooperation agreement between the space agencies. Both countries have been collaborating in data sharing and satellite tracking of Indian satellites. India launched Brazilian satellite Amazonia-1 in 2021, the first Earth Observation satellite to be completely designed, integrated, tested and operated by Brazil.
Oil & Gas and Bio-fuels
20. Brazil is India’s largest upstream investment destination in the Americas and the 3rd largest investment destination globally. Indian PSUs (OVL and BPRL) have invested USD 3.5 billion in Brazil’s upstream sector. They have participating interests with Petrobras in the upstream sector, focusing on developing BM-SEAL-11 and BM-SEAL-4. A Joint Working Group (JWG) was constituted under the MOU on Oil & Gas signed on 25 January 2020.
21. Brazil has become an important partner in India’s development of biofuels. Both countries signed an MOU on Bioenergy Cooperation in January 2020 and subsequently, held the first meeting of JWG on Bioenergy Cooperation virtually on 6 August 2021. Brazil became the co-founder member of Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA), which was launched in September 2023 during G20 Summit in New Delhi. The ‘National Biofuel Policy’ of India and ‘Renova Bio’ Program of Brazil have common objectives of enhancing biofuel blending.
Cooperation in Agriculture
22. Agriculture, food processing and animal husbandry are other key focus areas for bilateral cooperation. The cattle of Brazil and India share the same genetic heritage. Indian cattle like Gir and Kankrej, which were exported in early 20th century has been suitably modified to yield large quantities of milk. Both sides are working on training, capacity building and technology transfer.
23. An MOU between the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil was signed during the Global Food Regulators Summit in September 2024 in New Delhi. On cooperation in the field of agriculture, an MOU was signed between ICAR and Embrapa during the visit of PM to Brazil in July 2025.
Health and Traditional Medicine
24. An MOU for cooperation in health was signed in January 2020. The first meeting of the JWG on Health held in March 2022 wherein the two sides explored areas of mutual interest and potential collaboration such as health surveillance, technology transfer and joint research. Ayurveda and Yoga are both included as alternative therapies in the Policy of Integrative and Complimentary Practices (PNPIC) of Brazilian Health Ministry. An MOU on cooperation in the field of Traditional Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy was signed in January 2020. The first JWG meeting under the MOU was held in Brasilia on 7 November 2022.
Cooperation in Digital Technology
25. A delegation from Brazil participated in the Global Technology Summit held on 10-12 April 2025 at New Delhi. Subsequently, a delegation headed by Director, Brazilian Ministry of Science & Technology visited India from 5-7 May 2025. An MOU between MeitY and Ministry of Management & Innovation in Public Services on cooperation in the field of sharing successful digital solutions implemented at population scale for digital transformation was signed during PM’s visit to Brazil in July 2025. In October 2025, IIIT Bengaluru and COSS signed an agreement with DATAPREV to set up a Centre of Excellence in Brazil.
Climate Change
26. India participated in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change UNFCCC (COP30) in Belem, capital of State of Para in Brazil from 10-21 November where the delegation was led by Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Earlier, Dinesh Bhatia, Ambassador of India to Brazil represented India on behalf of Prime Minister during theLeaders’ Summit preceding COP30, on 6-7 November.
Technical Cooperation & Scholarships
27. Brazil is covered under the Scholarship scheme of Indian Council of Cultural relations (ICCR) as well as under the AYUSH Scholarship Scheme. Over 110 Brazilians have availed of the ITEC program for capacity building in a variety of programs including communications, management and defence. Brazilian diplomats have undergone training at the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service, New Delhi for the Professional Course for Foreign Diplomats (PCFD) and also in Disarmament and Internal Security Fellowship program.
Cultural Relations
28. The interest in Indian culture, religion, performing arts and philosophy, meditation and spirituality in Brazil is significant. Ramakrishna Mission, ISKCON, Satya Sai Baba, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Bhakti Vedanta Foundation, Art of Living and other spiritual gurus and organizations have chapters in Brazil. Folkloric traditions and celebrations from India relate a lot to the joyful and colourful festivities in Brazil. Indian philosophy, spirituality and religion were the first forms of Indian culture to reach Brazil. There are practitioners and students of classical Indian dance forms such as Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak and Kuchipudi.
29. India’s first cultural centre in Latin America was opened in São Paulo in May 2011, under the auspices of ICCR. There are teachers of Indian Culture and teachers of yoga and dance at the Cultural Centre.
30. Brazil has a strong community of Yoga and Ayurveda practitioners. There are numerous organizations teaching Yoga all over Brazil. Regular Yoga classes are being organised at the Embassy in Brazil. Also in July 2024, Yoga was incorporated into the public schools’ curriculum in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. All editions of International Day of Yoga have been celebrated with great enthusiasm in various parts of Brazil.
31. Mahatma Gandhi is highly regarded in Brazil as his philosophy of non-violence is being inculcated among students, youth and police. Statues of Mahatma Gandhi have been installed in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia, Salvador, Londrina and Cuiaba. An organization called Filhos de Gandhy (Sons of Gandhi) is popular in Salvador, Brazil and takes out street processions wearing Gandhian attire every year. Celebrating 60th anniversary of bilateral relations and 150th anniversary of birth of Mahatma Gandhi, a Gandhi bust was inaugurated on 9 January 2020 in the City Park of Brasilia.
32. In May 2025, Jonas Masetti, a Brazilian Acharya and founder of Vishva Vidya Gurukulam, received the Padma Shri award from President Droupadi Murmu. Earlier in 2020, Professor Lia Diskin & Ms. Gloria Arieira were conferred Padma Shri for their contribution in the fields of social work, and literature & education respectively. Globo Television, Brazil’s leading media group produced and aired a news special in 2019 titled “The Journey of Life: Ganges River”. The program focuses on places that have played an important role on the development of human civilization. Prof. Dilip Loundo was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards in 2023 for his contribution to promotion of Indian philosophy and traditions.
33. Indian cinema is also popular among the Brazilian people. Brazilian Post issued a commemorative stamp in May 2014 on “100 years of Indian Cinema”. India participated as the ‘Focus Country’ in the 48th São Paulo International Film Festival, held from 17-30 October 2024. The festival was marked by a special focus on Indian cinema and showcased a range of contemporary Indian films, highlighting both new directors and established filmmakers.
Indian Community in Brazil
34. The Indian community in Brazil is estimated to be around 4,000 people, with majority of them living in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and the rest scattered around in small numbers in various cities of Brazil. The community comprises primarily of professionals and businessmen, with some scientists / researchers also working in the fields of space, agriculture, physics and biotechnology. Given the concentration of numbers, the Indian community in São Paulo celebrates some Indian festival and also has an Indian Association.
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January 2026
