PM meets Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in Brasilia

Both leaders call for expanding bilateral ties, and stress on the need for reform of the United Nations 3 MoUs signed

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Brasilia on the margins of the Sixth BRICS Summit. Although it is not a bilateral visit, President Rousseff, in a special gesture, received Prime Minister of India with full military honours at the Presidential palace before their meeting over breakfast. Prime Minister warmly congratulated President Rousseff and the people of Brazil for an excellent FIFA world cup, which showed the World Brazil's excellent organizational skills and warm hospitality. He thanked President Rousseff for a well organized and successful BRICS summit, and in particular, arranging a meeting for BRICS with South American leaders. Shri Narendra Modi described the sixth summit hosted by Brazil as a historic one, which has produced two important agreements - the New Development Bank and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement - and lauded President Rousseff for her guidance during the Summit. Describing Brazil as a key global partner for India, Prime Minister noted that as two democracies and major emerging economies, India and Brazil not only had vast potential for bilateral cooperation, but also to strengthen each other in international forums and advance the interest of the developing world at large. He also noted that Gujarat has emerged as a prime driver of India's economic relations with Brazil. President Rousseff emphasized the special place this relationship enjoyed in Brazil's foreign policy, because of the potential for bilateral cooperation and the international significance of their partnership. She congratulated Shri Narendra Modi for his impressive victory in the elections and wished him all success for India's progress and development. The two leaders recalled the historical and cultural ties between the two countries, despite the distance, including the Gir cows that were brought to Brazil from India, the textiles and the fruits that came from India to Brazil since 18th and 19th centuries. The two leaders also agreed to take steps to further expand and diversify trade and investment flows and deepen cooperation in agriculture and dairy science, conventional and renewable energy, space research and applications, defence, cyber security and environment conservation. They also agreed to intensify their cooperation in international forums and multilateral institutions, including the G20. As leaders of G4 countries, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, and President Rousseff called for urgent progress on reforms of the United Nations, including the Security Council, by the time of the seventieth anniversary of the UN in 2015. Prime Minister expressed hope that he would be able to visit Brazil on a full bilateral visit soon and invited President Rousseff to visit India. Following their meeting, the two sides signed three agreements: -MoU on cooperation in the field of environment -Implementing arrangement establishing cooperation in augmentation of a Brazilian earth station for receiving and processing data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) Satellites -MoU on cooperation in the field of mobility and consular issues. Courtesy : pib.nic.in