Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira. File | Photo credit: RV Murthy
The plight of hundreds of men and women, many of them Indians, stranded at an airport in Sao Paulo as they are suspected of being illegal immigrants is likely to be discussed during the meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, who arrived in Delhi on Sunday (August 25, 2024). Mr Vieira is in New Delhi to hold the 9th India-Brazil Joint Commission meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, and they will also discuss the agenda of the upcoming G-20 Summit to be held in Rio de Janeiro on November 18 and 19, 2024, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement announcing the visit.
“Brazil holds the presidency of the G-20 this year, so the ministers will also discuss how the two countries can cooperate with each other.” [part of the] “The Troika will build on the key G20 outcomes achieved under the Indian Presidency last year,” the ministry said, adding that the two sides will discuss ways to further strengthen the India-Brazil strategic partnership signed in 2006. Mr Vieira is also meeting business leaders on ways to boost bilateral trade, which has been between $10-15 billion in the past few years.
The joint commission will meet on Tuesday, with cooperation in defence, agriculture and energy on the agenda. Brazil exports crude oil and cooperates with India on biofuels.
Mr Vieira will also discuss aligning efforts for documents being prepared for the G20 summit. Though India is a key member of the “troika” of Brazil, India and South Africa (hosts for 2023, 2024 and 2025 respectively), Mr Jaishankar could not attend the crucial G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in February due to the annual Raisina Dialogue conference and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could not attend the finance ministers’ meeting in July due to the presentation of the budget in Parliament. Officials said the foreign minister’s visit will be an opportune time to prioritise G20 issues, especially those for the developing world. India and Brazil are members of the BRICS, IBSA and BASIC groups as well as part of the G-4 initiative for UN reform and the ministers are likely to talk about the upcoming UN “Summit of the Future” on September 22-23, which is expected to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Lula da Silva.
Although Brazil’s new rules to crack down on illegal immigration routes and the detention of more than 660 people, including more than 100 Indians, at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport over several weeks is not on the formal agenda, officials hope it will be raised. “We have seen reports of people who are stranded and asking to be admitted [to Brazil] “We have not received any information about people living as refugees,” the sources said, but added that no information has been shared with New Delhi so far for confidentiality reasons and to protect the asylum seekers.
On August 22, Brazil’s Justice Ministry also announced that it would impose new restrictions on passengers from “certain Asian countries” passing through its airports from August 26 (Monday), and would not allow them to stay in Brazil. The measure is expected to particularly target Indians, Chinese, Nepalese and Vietnamese nationals, who are believed to be part of a growing trend of illegal immigrants landing and seeking asylum and then taking the land route from Brazil to the Mexican border to cross to the US and Canada. According to the US Justice Department, the number of such “asylum applications” has increased 61 times between 2013 and 2023, rising from 69 to 4,239,
Meanwhile, US border control services recorded that the number of Indians crossing the US southern borders has risen to nearly 1,00,000, five times the 2019-2020 figures, as Indians have now become the third largest community of illegal immigrants in the US.