India and Brazil, key emerging markets and voices of the Global South, are working to deepen their political and economic engagement after being stung by steep punitive tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump and against the backdrop of global realignments and uncertainties.
During the October 15-17 visit of Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin to India, the two countries discussed cooperation in areas spanning energy, trade, investments, healthcare, and agriculture. Alckmin’s trip to New Delhi comes close on the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Brazil in July for the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) emerging markets grouping summit in Rio de Janeiro. During that visit, Modi had met Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva separately in Brasilia.
In New Delhi, Alckmin met with his Indian counterpart, Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, and Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri. The Brazilian vice president later confirmed that Brazil had invited Indian companies to participate in his country’s upcoming auction of oil blocks. Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency is expected to release six oil exploration blocks in the Campos and Santos basins next year; another 18 blocks could also be opened for auction, news reports said.
“We have invited Indian oil companies to participate in these auctions,” Alckmin said, confirming that Petrobras has signed a contract to supply crude oil to India, and that Brazil continues to import diesel from Indian refiners. “This is a two-way partnership. We sell oil to India, and we buy refined fuel from India,” Alckmin said.
A statement from Petrobras said it had signed a one-year oil sales contract on October 16 with the Indian state-owned refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) to supply up to six million barrels of crude. Petrobras will be supplying oil to three major Indian state-owned refiners. In February, Petrobras concluded a sales agreement with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited for the delivery of up to six million barrels over one year. Besides, the Brazilian company also has a contract with Indian Oil Corporation — India’s largest state-owned refiner — under which more than 20 million barrels of oil have already been exported to India over the past two years, it said.
Incidentally, India’s purchase of discounted Russian crude oil has been a cause of friction between the Trump administration and the Modi government. Trump has accused New Delhi many times of funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.
While Trump wants India to stop buying oil from Russia, he is also pushing India to buy more crude from the U.S. India has maintained that its import policy was “guided by the interests of the Indian consumer in a volatile energy scenario.” Of late, Trump has said that India has expressed willingness to cut imports from Russia, something India has not confirmed.
It is unclear whether India’s decision to buy crude from Brazil – also a target of Trump’s ire — would mollify or anger the volatile U.S. President. Trump has slammed BRICS as being anti-dollar and anti-U.S. Trump has threatened BRICS members with more tariffs as a means of deterring other countries inclined to join the grouping. In 2024, BRICS expanded its membership from five to nine with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE joining as full members. Earlier this year, Indonesia joined its ranks, bringing the membership to 10. Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Vietnam are among the BRICS partner countries that are awaiting full membership. India is set to chair the rotating presidency of BRICS in 2026.
The U.S. is a key market for both India and Brazil. Nearly a fifth of all Indian exports went to the U.S last year, while about 12 percent of Brazil’s exports went to the U.S. during the same period.
Besides energy trade, there were other takeaways from Alckmin’s India visit, flowing from the July joint statement issued after the Modi-Lula meeting in which the two leaders had spoken of the “increasingly challenging global scenario marked by growing protectionism,” while expressing their determination to deepen bilateral economic and trade relations.
“Recognizing the huge potential for growth in trade flows between their countries,” India and Brazil would look at collaboration in the areas of pharmaceuticals, defense equipment, mining and minerals, and the oil and gas sector, the statement had said.
In a bid to deepen their trade bonds, India and Brazil have now agreed to expand the scope of the existing preferential trade pact between New Delhi and the four-nation Mercosur bloc in South America. The Mercosur grouping comprises Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay besides Brazil.
During talks between Alckmin and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, the two countries decided to set up a technical dialogue framework to examine the scope of expanding the existing arrangement. An Indian commerce ministry statement said that India and Mercosur “should endeavour to conclude the negotiations within one year from the launch of negotiations.”
Brazil is India’s largest trade partner in South America, with bilateral merchandise trade reaching the $12 billion mark in 2024. The two have now set a trade target of $20 billion by the year 2030.
In the area of defense, Brazilian aerospace company Embraer signed a pact with India’s Mahindra group for the introduction of C-390 Millennium military transport aircraft in India, with the Indian Air Force looking to procure such aircraft as part of its modernization program. The agreement between Embraer Defense and Security and the Mahindra Group builds on a previous pact signed in February 2024 to include developing India as a hub for the C-390 Millennium.
On its part, India has offered its home-grown Akash air defense missile system to Brazil. It is a medium-range, surface-to-air missile system that provides air defense cover for mobile or stationary forces and can simultaneously engage multiple targets from different directions. It was most recently seen in operation during the India-Pakistan military conflict on May 7-10, and credited with, along with the Russian-made S400 air defense system, intercepting Pakistani drones, missiles and aircraft.
With the Alckmin visit following Modi’s Brasilia trip and the expectation of an early 2026 visit to New Delhi by President Lula, India-Brazil ties are on an upswing. The geographical distance between the two countries has often been cited as an impeding factor, injecting seeming lethargy into ties. But with both countries looking at direct flights, this hurdle too is expected to be overcome soon.
India and Brazil are seen as key growth spots in their respective geographies in Asia and South America. Besides, both are members of multilateral groupings such as BRICS, the G-20, the IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) grouping that brings three democracies and large countries of three continents together, and the G-4 with Germany and Japan, which is seeking reform of the UN Security Council.
Besides the bilateral track, India and Brazil have multiple forums to pursue their shared interests amid the current global geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges. This will require them to keep up the momentum that was generated during their recent engagements.