What Does the Future Hold for India-Latin America Relations?
What Does the Future Hold for India-Latin America Relations?
By Jorge Heine, Margaret Myers, Jahangir Aziz
Latin America Advisor, July 24, 2012
Originally published in the Dialogue's daily Latin America Advisor
Q: India plans to host the first India-CELAC Foreign Ministers' Dialogue on Aug. 7 in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported. While India's economic engagement with the region has been far overshadowed by China's, bilateral trade has grown from $2 billion in 2000 to more than $25 billion, with state-controlled Indian oil companies recently announcing almost $3 billion in investments in Venezuela's oil sector. Where are political and economic relations between India and Latin America headed? What constraints are there to improving trade and how can they be remedied? Which countries and sectors present the best opportunities for growth?
A: Jorge Heine, CIGI chair in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario, and a former Chilean cabinet minister and ambassador to India: "The last decade has seen a sea change in Indo-Latin American relations. The number of LAC embassies in New Delhi grew from 12 in 2003 to 18 in 2008, and the Indian ones in the region from seven to 14. While only 10 presidential visits from Latin America to India took place from 1947 to 2000, a dozen did so since 2000. Trade is one-tenth of that with China, but it may nearly triple, to $70 billion, in 2015, part of increased South-South trade and investment flows. Yet, many Latin American government officials and businesses remain fixated on China. They do not realize that, according to some projections, India's growth rate will overcome that of China by 2020 and India's population will be bigger than China's by 2030. The India-CELAC Dialogue could not be more timely. It joins Latin America's new regionalism with the new India. The larger countries are taking the lead, with Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile and Argentina at the
By Jorge Heine, Margaret Myers, Jahangir Aziz
Latin America Advisor, July 24, 2012
Originally published in the Dialogue's daily Latin America Advisor
Q: India plans to host the first India-CELAC Foreign Ministers' Dialogue on Aug. 7 in New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported. While India's economic engagement with the region has been far overshadowed by China's, bilateral trade has grown from $2 billion in 2000 to more than $25 billion, with state-controlled Indian oil companies recently announcing almost $3 billion in investments in Venezuela's oil sector. Where are political and economic relations between India and Latin America headed? What constraints are there to improving trade and how can they be remedied? Which countries and sectors present the best opportunities for growth?
A: Jorge Heine, CIGI chair in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario, and a former Chilean cabinet minister and ambassador to India: "The last decade has seen a sea change in Indo-Latin American relations. The number of LAC embassies in New Delhi grew from 12 in 2003 to 18 in 2008, and the Indian ones in the region from seven to 14. While only 10 presidential visits from Latin America to India took place from 1947 to 2000, a dozen did so since 2000. Trade is one-tenth of that with China, but it may nearly triple, to $70 billion, in 2015, part of increased South-South trade and investment flows. Yet, many Latin American government officials and businesses remain fixated on China. They do not realize that, according to some projections, India's growth rate will overcome that of China by 2020 and India's population will be bigger than China's by 2030. The India-CELAC Dialogue could not be more timely. It joins Latin America's new regionalism with the new India. The larger countries are taking the lead, with Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile and Argentina at the