Brazil shows interest in Indian defence innovations ahead of PM Modi’s visit

New Delhi: As India continues to march ahead in pursuit of defence indigenisation and self-reliance, Brazil has shown keen interest in acquiring indigenous defence innovations, discussions on which are likely to be held during Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s visit to the Latin American nation starting July 6, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated on Monday.

“Yes, there are going to be discussions on defence cooperation and enhancing it with Brazil. We are looking at avenues for joint research, technology sharing, and training exchanges. We are still in talks about what kind of cooperation is possible and what kind of defence platforms we can sell to Brazil, but there has not been much progress yet. Broadly, we have identified a few areas that seem to be of interest to the Brazilian side,” MEA’s Secretary East P. Kumaran told reporters during a media briefing ahead of PM’s visit.

PM Modi will be on a five-nation visit starting July 2. He will be arriving in Rio de Janeiro for the 17th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in the fourth leg of his visit after Ghana (July 2-3), Trinidad and Tobago (July 3-4) and Argentina (July 4-5).

After attending the BRICS Summit at the invitation of Brazillian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, PM Modi will travel to Brasilia for the State Visit and will hold bilateral discussions on the broadening of the strategic partnership between the two countries in areas of mutual interest, including trade, defence, energy, space, technology, agriculture, health and people-to-people linkages.

“They (Brazil) are interested in secured communication systems on the battlefield, they are also interested in Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPVs). Brazil has Scorpene submarines, they are interested in partnering with us in maintaining those submarines. They also seem to be interested in the Akash Air Defence Systems and Coastal Surveillance System, Garuda Artillery Guns. They are also interested in defence industry joint ventures with us, joint R&D and co-development of systems. We also use the Embraer platform to develop reconnaissance systems on top of that.. So, there is a lot of potential for us to work with Brazil given their strength in aircraft industry in general,” Secretary Kumaran said on Monday. (IANS)

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