New Delhi: India and members of the Global South can be taught from one another’s experiences in tackling challenges reminiscent of terrorism and organised crime, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned on Monday as he held talks with visiting Paraguayan President Santiago Peña on bolstering cooperation in areas starting from commerce to digital expertise and defence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets President of Paraguay, Santiago Pena, at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Monday. (Arvind Yadav/ Hindustan Times)

The Pahalgam terror assault of April 22, which prompted India to focus on terrorist infrastructure in territories managed by Pakistan, figured in talks between the 2 leaders. Modi mentioned India and Paraguay “stand united” within the combat in opposition to terror and Peña expressed solidarity with the victims of the phobia assault. Both leaders unequivocally condemned all types of terrorism and violent extremism, officers mentioned.

Peña started a three-day go to to India on Monday, the primary by a Paraguayan president since 2012. Besides holding talks with the Indian management, he’s additionally set to satisfy high enterprise leaders in New Delhi and Mumbai to induce them to spend money on various sectors in Paraguay.

“India and Paraguay stand united in the fight against terrorism. There is immense possibility of cooperation to fight against shared challenges such as cybercrime, organised crime and drug trafficking,” Modi mentioned in his opening remarks on the assembly with Peña, talking in Hindi.

Modi famous that India and Paraguay are integral elements of the Global South with related aspirations and challenges and mentioned: “This is why we can learn from each other’s experiences to deal with these challenges effectively.”

Modi additionally expressed his deep appreciation for Paraguay’s robust condemnation of the Pahalgam terror assault and expressing solidarity with the folks and authorities of India. “Both leaders unequivocally condemned terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms and manifestations,” P Kumaran, secretary (East) within the exterior affairs ministry, informed a media briefing.

“We see new opportunities for cooperation in areas such as digital technology, critical minerals, energy, agriculture, healthcare, defence, railways, space and overall economic partnership,” Modi mentioned. “We have a preferential trade agreement with Mercosur. We can work together to further expand it.”

In addition to establishing a joint fee as a key platform to assessment and advance cooperation in precedence areas, the 2 sides are engaged on two separate memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to boost collaboration in agriculture and house expertise. The two international locations are engaged on a MoU for Paraguay to collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to develop and launch small and nano satellites, Kumaran mentioned.

While Paraguay’s priorities within the defence sector are completely different from these of India, Kumaran mentioned there’s scope for bilateral cooperation within the context of Paraguay’s efforts to safe giant community of inland waterways, together with bolstering legislation enforcement to deal with trans-national crimes reminiscent of human and drug trafficking.

Peña additionally expressed eager curiosity in attracting Indian investments and enhancing bilateral cooperation in well being, prescription drugs, defence, infrastructure, mining and renewable power. Peña urged Indian companies to benefit from Paraguay’s place as probably the most open economies within the Mercosur area and promised to facilitate investments, officers mentioned.

“Given their central location in South America, it would be possible for us to use Paraguay as a launching pad to try and access other markets in the region. Our companies would be looking at Paraguay as…a staging post and therefore, look at it in a way that is a force multiplier,” Kumaran mentioned. “We will be looking at expanding our presence in South America, using Paraguay as a staging post.”

India and Paraguay additionally want to develop commerce hyperlinks below the India-Mercosur preferential commerce settlement. The members of Mercosur, a commerce bloc that at the moment contains Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, are holding technical talks with India on enhancing market entry and boosting bilateral and inter-regional commerce.

There is severe curiosity in increasing the scope and attain of the India-Mercosur preferential commerce settlement when it comes to the vary of merchandise, although consensus needs to be constructed up among the many 5 members on the bloc on the phrases of reference for additional discussions, Kumaran mentioned.

Two-way between India and Paraguay was price $477 million throughout 2022-23, with Indian exports accounting for $317 million. India’s most important exports had been motor autos, agro-chemicals, auto elements and pharmaceutical merchandise, whereas the important thing imports from Paraguay had been soya oil, iron and metal, aluminium and animal merchandise.