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PM Narendra Modi with Paraguay President Santiago Peña Palacios, who is on a three-day state visit to India, in New Delhi on Monday. President Peña will also visit Mumbai (Express/Praveen Khanna)
Hosting the first foreign head of state since Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the visiting President of Paraguay, Santiago Peña Palacios, that the two countries are “united in the fight against terrorism” and there is immense possibility of cooperation to fight against “shared challenges” such as cybercrime, organised crime, and drug trafficking.
Welcoming President Peña at delegation-level talks, Modi said the Paraguayan leader’s first visit to Delhi will add new strength to the pillars of trust, trade, and close cooperation in the relations and will also add new dimensions to India-Latin America relations.
Peña, who arrived in Delhi Monday, is on a three-day visit to India to explore ways to expand overall cooperation. It is his first visit to India and only the second trip by a president of the South American country.
“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 said, describing the two countries as integral parts of Global South with similar “hopes, aspirations, challenges.”
“We see new opportunities for cooperation in areas such as digital technology, critical minerals, energy, agriculture, healthcare, defence, railways, space and overall economic partnership,” he said.
Briefing reporters, P Kumaran, Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, said: “This visit comes soon after the barbaric terrorist attack in Pahalgam, J&K. PM Modi expressed his deep appreciation to Paraguay for its strong condemnation of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, as well as for the sincere condolences and solidarity expressed with the people and the Government of India… On behalf of the Paraguayan people, President Peña expressed his deep solidarity with the victims and families of the terrorist attack.”
Kumaran said the two sides welcomed the establishment of a joint commission mechanism (JCM) at the Secretary / Vice-Ministerial level, which will serve as “a key platform to review and advance cooperation in priority areas of mutual interest.”
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The PM also referred to New Delhi’s preferential trade arrangement with South American trading bloc MERCOSUR, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. “We can work together to further expand it,” the PM said.
On defence cooperation, Kumaran said while Paraguay’s priorities are different to those of India, the “logic driving their acquisition of defence hardware” is mainly law enforcement.
He said one of the points discussed in the talks was “AgriStack”. “As a large agricultural country, the use of digital platforms to make agriculture more efficient… is of great interest to the Paraguayan side,” Kumaran said.
Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More
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