Gradual Resurgence of France as a Strategic Presence in Latin America and the Caribbean

by COHA Research Fellow Alex Sánchez and Research Associate Annie Hamel
03 May 2006
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
http://www.coha.org/gradual-resurgence-of-france-as-a-strategic-presence-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean/

Announcement: President Morales Detonates a Bomb, with Repercussions that Reach Far Beyond Bolivia COHA will shortly be issuing an analysis of President Evo Morales’ May 1 announcement that all Bolivian natural gas and hydrocarbons will be nationalized. The report will examine the pluses and minuses of Morales’ action, and pay particular attention to the importance of the nationalization as a tool for regional integration. Themes will include the world’s reaction to the decree; geopolitical factors including proposed pipeline projects; and the impact of the Bolivian nationalization on relations between Brasilia and La Paz. COHA will also discuss the question of whether the State Department will now throw aside its nascent policy of cautious respect for Morales and add him to its hate list. Additionally, the release will examine the nationalization through the lens of the recently signed tri-partite ALBA trade pact between Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia, which may mark the beginning of a developing world call for a more socially conscious and humanistic system of development and trade. This would thus represent the opening chapter of a philosophical assault on the tenets of the Washington Consensus, which asserted the supremacy of market accessibility and the superiority of the private over the public sector.

• Chirac’s visit to Brazil confirms the South American nation’s rising global status

• Increased French influence goes hand in hand with a decline of Washington’s leverage in its own hemisphere

French President Jacques Chirac will be visiting Brazil on May 25, which has the potential of becoming a watershed meeting in the furtherance of enhanced relations between the two major regional powers as well as France’s emergent presence in the area. France, which for years has lacked a significant imprint on the hemisphere, now appears to be gradually returning and expanding its influence by improving its ties with Brazil and giving some priority to its own Caribbean basin territories. Chirac’s visit to Brazil comes after last October’s Paris meeting between French Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In the De Villepin-Chavez encounter, the two countries came forth with declarations about their countries’ blossoming relationship and their desire to seek even further cooperation “on all levels.” Since both Paris and Caracas have had strained links in the recent past to Washington (and regarding Venezuela, very contemporaneously), any increased cordiality between them could prove mettlesome for White House policymakers. According to Latin America specialist Jean-Jacques Kourliandsky, of the Paris-based Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), France, for the most part, has only had marginal diplomatic connections to Latin America, as the was region no longer considered a “priority continent.” Chirac’s visit to Brazil and De Villepin’s meeting with Chávez are obvious signals of a renewed French interest in a constructive relationship with the Western Hemisphere, notwithstanding the duplicitous role played by De Villepin in facilitating the extra-constitutional ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February of 2004 – an event that was engineered by Roger Noriega, formerly of the State Department, and which included the French foreign minister, the U.N.’s Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Canadians.

One can be excused for minimizing the potential importance of France’s presence in the region. Although much of its newfound visibility in recent years occurred without fanfare, Paris, in fact, has been quietly strengthening its presence across the hemisphere, from its Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadalupe to Colombia and Brazil. Chirac’s Brasilia trip is likely to lay the foundations for greater French investment and diplomatic involvement in the area. The prospects for a greater French role will heavily depend on the result of the country’s presidential elections next year. It will also depend if De Villepin manages to win and continue his own as well as President Chirac’s controversial legacy, and whether he will not be too burdened by the former’s rather shameful relationship with Haiti as its Judas, at the time that President Aristide was using up his remaining hours on the island.

France & Latin America-Brazil, the Major Interest

The foundation of the new ties between France and Latin America is a growing commercial exchange. According to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after the 1980s economic slowdown, French exports to Latin America increased from 16.7 billion Francs in 1990 (1.5% of the country’s total exports) to 45 billion in 1998 (2.6% of the total exports). In 2001, Mexico occupied 15% of total trade between France and Latin America, while half of total trade was between France and MERCOSUR nations.

The Quai d’Orsay (France’s foreign relations ministry) has amply displayed its growing interest in emerging Latin American economies, offering new investment opportunities for Paris, with Brazil attracting particular attention. Today, the Portuguese-speaking giant is regarded as a rising power, comparable to India, hence Paris’ great interest to cultivate its interest. In an interview with COHA, M. Amblard, an official on Brazilian affairs at France’s ministry of foreign affairs, highlighted the historical ties between France and Brazil, referring to the Brazilians that sought refuge in France in 1964 in order to escape the (Marshall Humberto de Alencar Castelo) Branco military junta, as one component of the two countries’ bilateral ties. Mr. Kouliansky of IRIS described how, in order to improve relations between France and Brazil, the French government made 2005 the “year of Brazil,” in which 15 million people participated in widely attended national festivals. Brazilian President Lula even participated in the July 14 French national parade, an honor which is not lightly bestowed. In addition, several cooperative agreements between the two countries on different issues like commerce, education, and culture. As part of this renewed push, France corporations became the fourth largest investor in Brazil in 2005, and were responsible for the creation of 230.000 jobs. France’s international support for Brazil’s Zero Hunger Project, which Brasilia had presented to the United Nations as an example of how to bring development to a country strongly needing reform, shows that Paris’ commitment is stronger than simply self-gratifying rhetoric. France’s initiatives and support for Brazil have made Chirac’s upcoming visit an event which is being warmly awaited by Lula and his government as part of its political and economic diversification theme which the Palácio do Planalto means to stress.

On a business level, many French multinational enterprises have invested in Brazil among them Renault-Nissan and Casino-Carrefour. In a December 1997 Billboard magazine article, the CEO of French mega department store FNAC, Francois-Henri Pineault, announced his company’s plans for Latin America and Asia, noting “we already have teams in action and we plan to open stores in the next 12-18 months.” He went on to explain that “Europe will become our domestic market, but our international development will cover other continents.” Pinault was speaking almost prophetically since FNAC opened a store in Sao Paulo in 1999, providing just one illustration of how French companies are penetrating Latin American markets. An April 25 article in Brazil’s Investnews celebrates the country’s exports to France in the past year, which include Havaianas flip flops, chemicals, prepared foods, turbines, auto tires and leather shoes.

Colombia

France has sought active engagement in Colombia, but more on the basis of political rather than economic motives. Several French citizens are currently held by Colombian rebel groups, a situation which has prompted Paris to seek the role of a mediator in order to expedite the release of the French nationals. It is unclear if French negotiators are currently involved in the present discussions between the Colombian government and the major rebel movement in the country, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), for the release of some of the latter’s victims.

Among the hostages that Paris is determined to liberate is the former Colombian presidential candidate and former congresswoman, Ingrid Betancourt, who has been held hostage since February 2002. Betancourt, a French-Colombian citizen, is the daughter of a former Colombian diplomat. Prime Minister De Villepin was Betancourt’s political science professor, and has made obtaining her release a pillar of his country’s Colombian policy as well as a matter of his personal dedication. In an April 21 press release, France’s foreign minister, M. Philippe Douste-Blaze, expressed France’s determination to secure her release. Earlier, in an 2006 interview, Douste-Blaze explained how, in coordination with Spain and Switzerland, Paris is trying to organize a round of negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC. He explained that France is committed to the respect of human rights and Colombia’s sovereignty, but has only one central objective: the liberation of all the hostages, particularly Ingrid Betancourt.

However, Quai d’Orsay seems to have maneuvered less than adeptly in seeking its goals, and Colombian officials are becoming agitated over Paris’ heavy handedness. An article in the French daily Le Figaro quotes a Colombian official as saying: “the French government has multiplied its errors in the Betancourt affair.” The official goes on to say “if [Paris] had reacted as it did for the French hostage in Iraq, [Betancourt] would already be freed.” Critiques of the French government’s approach seemed somewhat justified, especially after the body of Aida Duvalier, a Colombian-French hostage, was recovered in February in the town of Quinchia, west of Bogot. Duvalier had been kidnapped by the relatively unknown Ejército Popular de Liberación (EPL) in March 2001.

The Caribbean

French Overseas Territories

France’s historic ties to the Western Hemisphere are bolstered by the country’s numerous possessions in the greater Caribbean region, known as “Departement d’Outre-Mer” (DOM or Overseas Departments). These include the islands of Guadelupe and Martinique, as well as French Guyana. These are not simply French territories, but since the 1980s have held the same legal standing as any other French mainland department like Loire or Manche, with their citizens having the same rights as other French citizens. Unlike British-controlled Bermuda, there is hardly any discussion about moving towards full independence in the French DOM. The inhabitants seem to enjoy the benefits of being legal French citizens, which – like Puerto Rico’s links to the U.S. – are not insubstantial. They enjoy unrestricted migration to France and the rest of Europe, as well as a steady flow of economic aid and subsidies from Paris and the European Union. However, not everything is made of gold; the lack of vital independence movements can also be partially explained by the well-grounded fear that would-be self determinants have of Paris’ traditionally repressive policies toward pro-independence civic movements. A 1997 Round Table journal article by Dr. Helen Hinjens, explains that Paris’ overall approach (particularly in the 1960s) towards pro-independence parties and movements in the DOM was repressive. Most were banned outright and, like their Algerian counterparts, their leaders were deported to mainland France under “special security circumstances.”

French Guyana and its neighbors

French Guyana, with its small population of 157.213 – according to a 1999 national census – holds particular importance for several reasons, principally its 673 km common border with Brazil. Currently, both French and Brazilian legislators are debating the construction of a 300-meter bridge over the Oyapock River, which separates the two territories, as well as giving permanent circulation entrance cards to the residents on both river banks, permitting them to cross freely. Associated migratory issues weigh heavily on relations between French Guyana and Brazil. In addition, the “gareimperos” (illegal Brazilian gold seekers) have begun prospecting mining operations in the rivers of French Guyana. Such incursions are envenomed by the gareimperos’ use of mercury in their refining efforts, which has a widespread baleful ecological impact. Among the most affected groups have been local indigenous communities, who not only experience health problems as a result of the exposure to the lethal metal, but are often subjected to threats of violence from criminal groups who run protection operations for the gareimperos. Moreover, according to the French organization Reporteurs sans frontières, journalists attempting to expose the region’s combative atmosphere have repeatedly faced deaths threats from illegal groups’ leaders.

Authorities in French Guyana have struggled to control the unlawful activities of these prospectors, particularly because of tremendous difficulties posed by the dense Amazonian forest. Last February, Brazil and Venezuela signed an accord to explore and exploit their quadrants of the border area, which covers more than 2,000 km. A January article in Mining Journal by Dominic Mercer explains that the propellant behind the accord includes the pollution brought about by the garimpeiros and the yet-to-be-determined quantity and quality of contraband diamonds and gold they have gathered. It is unclear if Chirac and Lula will get around to discussing this issue when they meet.

The multilateral facet

Elsewhere in the region, Paris has actively pursued multilateral engagement as an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), representing the DOM. The ACS, which was founded on July 24, 1994, has a broad membership including 25 full members, from both island and mainland Caribbean nations as well as three associate members (France, Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles). The United States and the United Kingdom have observer status. France’s associate membership in the ACS might offer a privileged path towards displaying an enhanced presence in the region. Caribbean governments have been trying to lure Martinique and Guadalupe into playing a role in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), knowing full well that an opened French purse and a flow of investments would likely follow.

Several steps have already been taken to boost this incipient relationship. Last March, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerritt met with French DOM officials; the discussions ended in an agreement establishing that Dominica’s citizens would no longer require visas to travel to French Caribbean territories. Another significant development is Paris’ decision to donate a total of $126,000 to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, in support of the Commission’s efforts in Haiti.

On the subject of the region’s persistent crime problems, France has even opened a crime center in Martinique, the Centre interministériel de formation anti-drogues (CIFAD), in order to train regional police officers to combat drug trafficking. Another example is the recent 3-day March meeting in Paramaribo between Surinamese and French judicial authorities. According to the CMC news agency, the conference’s purpose was to “strengthen cooperation to deal with a wide range of cross – border criminal activities between Suriname and French Guyana.” The crimes brought up in the discussion included illegal immigration, auto theft, human trafficking, smuggled fuel as well as illegal small scale gold mining by the Brazilian garempeiros.

A Question of Interest

Links to Brazil, Colombia and the Caribbean typify France’s new engagement with Latin America; a policy which does not operate on a macro-scale, but rather by carefully selecting a sharp-shooter’s target, emphasizing a partnership based on particular circumstances. Often, the motivation is commercial; however in Colombia, it has been more political and humanitarian. A possible victory by Prime Minister De Villepin in the 2007 presidential race will likely mark a continuation of France’s current policy of strategic friendships throughout the Caribbean, with perhaps a greater French presence in Colombia in order to obtain Ingrid Betancourt’s freedom. Until then, President Chirac’s visit to Brazil constitutes an example that Latin America and the Caribbean can no longer be dismissed as being situated in Washington’s “sphere of influence.” After China, France is yet another country that, for strategic and financial reasons, and because of the region’s abundance of resources, is turning to Latin America and the Caribbean, regions that have opened their doors and are seeking to gain new friends and diversified trade partners.

India: The Relatively Quiet, but Growing Presence of a New Asian Powerhouse in the Western Hemisphere, Particularly Brazil

by Research Fellow Alex Sánchez
10 Sep 2007
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
http://www.coha.org/india-the-relatively-quiet-but-growing-presence-of-a-new-asian-powerhouse-in-the-western-hemisphere-particularly-brazil/

• Is curry chicken along with a caipirinha (a Brazilian drink) on its way to becoming a ubiquitous combination throughout the South American behemoth?
• A collaboration on nuclear energy and what could turn out to be a competitive struggle for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council
• From Cuba to Brazil to Guyana, New Delhi has made it clear that it is here to stay in the hemisphere

It shouldn’t be a surprise that India is extending a widening presence in the Western Hemisphere. With Washington focused on Iraq and its “War on Terror” in other parts of the world, Latin America and the Caribbean have become candidates for meaningful political and economic relationships with a number of emerging global powers, like India.

Latin America and the Caribbean are zones of interest to the world’s powerhouses, which means that India will have to push its way by other interested parties, like the European Union, Russia and China, aside from the U.S. in order to establish a serious presence on the continent. So far, it has made good progress towards this goal, but much is left to be done. What is clear is that Brazil will be the centerpiece of New Delhi’s geopolitical aspirations in the Western Hemisphere, due to common visions and or grandiose schemes like nuclear energy cooperation, shared interest in ethanol, and a mutual desire to be awarded a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Trade agreements, high-level diplomatic visits and growing investment projects signal New Delhi’s increasingly bulking presence on the continent, and exemplify the fact that India is here to stay.

Brazil
When it comes to Latin America and the Caribbean, New Delhi’s most important relationship and main country of interest, is Brazil. This is not surprising, as both of these huge nations share common interests and their economic profiles almost look like mirror images of one another. Among the numerous similarities between Brazil and India are that both nations have emerged to become the gentle giants of their respective regions, which has prompted policymakers in both capitals to begin to have global aspirations. The two countries see themselves as the representatives of the developing countries in Latin America and Asia respectively, and out of this still tentative setting they have quietly embarked on what essentially could be seen as a launching of competitive campaigns (if the expansion of the UN Security Council is very limited) to obtain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. In addition, both countries have a nuclear history, and today continue to tease with the idea of becoming major nuclear powers. India, of course, already has a small nuclear arsenal and a military edge due to its longtime dispute with Pakistan. Lastly, both Brazil and India have rapidly growing economies, in part due to their fast burgeoning populations.

On July 23rd, Indian Business Insight reported that Brazil and South Africa, both members of the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group, had agreed to sign a nuclear civilian power agreement with India In July, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee hosted a day-long talk which was attended by his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, and South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. “The meeting of the foreign ministers is also a prelude to a trilateral summit in South Africa in October,” an official from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office told Agence France Presse. The three nations also created the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA) in September 2006, when their respective leaders met in Brasilia and urged the rich nations to yield somewhat on overheated trade talks. The leaders are calling for the UN Security Council to be expanded and add more permanent member seats for Africa and Latin America, as well as another for Asia. A June 26th article in the Financial Express highlights the convergence of trade interests between Brasilia and New Delhi: “Some immediate examples are sugar, soy and wood […] Brazil is a very strategic partner that today shares a lot of strategic and political goals with India, does not have territorial conflicts over land or sea and finds itself outside, like India, to the dominant political power structures in the world sharing more common ground with India than with these structures. Brazil’s prowess in sugar and Ethanol is already known. What is yet unknown is Brazilian potential to be a major supplier of wood and wood products to India and the rest of the world.” A June 3rd article entitled “Why Brazil Matters to India,” carried in Indo-Asian News Service, points out that “it is India’s search for alternative energy resources [that] can make Brazil [the] world leader in biofuels like ethanol – a crucial lynchpin of its quest for energy security.”

Moving from the domestic to the international scene, India and Brazil have evolved as “major voice[s] of moderation” regarding world politics with their two-trillion dollar economies transforming their strategic ties across diverse areas. No wonder that India’s Ambassador to Brazil, Hardeep Singh Puri, was brought to say that “if Brazil and India can take a position together on an important global issue, no one can ignore it.” Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited India for three days in early June, demonstrating the growing ties between the countries.

Among the numerous examples of different interests and projects closely tying the two growing powerhouses, is the relationship between OVL, India’s dominant oil company, and Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned energy giant. The two companies are collaborating in oil exploration, and in addition, the Chennai-based Paramount Airways has collaborative ties with Embraer, the leading Brazilian manufacturer of civilian aircraft, and plans to add another 51 Embraer planes to its existing fleet of five. Furthermore, India and Brazil have signed an Audio-Visual Co-production Agreement.
India and Brazil have staked out a somewhat ambitious bilateral trade target of US $10 billion by 2010. However, it is not only Brazil that India is out to befriend in the hemisphere. New Delhi is returning to historical and ethnological links, as well as aggressively using its newly-born economic dynamism and its available foreign investment capacity to attract new friends, even some of which are not necessarily to Washington’s liking.

Guyana
Guyana seems to be India’s main interest in the Caribbean region, due, of course to Indian Guyanese making up the majority of the small South American nation’s population. A somewhat comparable condition exists in Trinidad, where large numbers of descendants of Indian immigrants can also be found. An August 17th report by the Caribbean Media Corporation quotes the president of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, praising the Indian government for its contributions towards his country’s growth. “I acknowledge with appreciation the development assistance which Guyana has received from the government of India over the years. This valued assistance has been in various sectors and served to enhance national capacity to promote development.” The statement was made as part of remarks made at the celebration of India’s 60th independence anniversary from the U.K. Also attending the celebration was India’s High Commissioner, Avinash Gupta, who said that “the seed of our relationship, which was sown by the first batch of Indian indentured laborers in 1837, has grown today into a big fruit-bearing tree and today’s generations in both countries are enjoying its fruits.” Other reports indicate India’s interest in assisting Guyana with its developmental thrust through the provision of funding from the Export Import Bank of India (EXIM). In addition, India has been providing medical treatment to poor Guyanese children.

Cuba
Cuba and India have extended a renewable energy cooperation agreement to 2009. Vilas Muttemwar, India’s renewable energy minister, said that the agreement will help consolidate and integrate Cuba’s strategies for hydroelectric, wind, thermal and photovoltaic solar power generation. “Cuba can count on all our support,” Muttemwar said, adding that India, the world’s fourth largest nation in wind-power electricity generation, would also offer study grants to Cubans under its Indian Technical Cooperation Program. Cuba is the only Latin American nation to have a renewable energy pact with India, which was signed in 1998.

India is a nation that is increasingly emerging in the U.S.’ line of interest, due to the nature of its economy, its geographic location which allows it to bridge eastern and western Asia, and its geopolitical advantage with proximity to Central Asia, Pakistan and China. Meanwhile, given that there is no sign that Washington-Havana relations will improve anytime soon, it would be of interest to know what Washington policymakers think about the potential New Delhi-Havana relationship, which is likely to broaden and deepen in the near future. This makes Havana ever more unassailable to U.S. efforts to isolate the Castro Regime.

Central America and Mexico
Guatemalan foreign minister, Gert Rosenthal, traveled to India from August 25th to the 31st. During his six-day visit, he held talks with the sub-continent’s minister of state for external affairs, Anand Sharma. According to press accounts, the two officials discussed deepening the dialogue and vows of cooperation between India and the Central American Regional Group, known as Sica. Sharma visited Guatemala in June 2006; on this occasion, he announced a line of credit of ten million dollars to Guatemala, and an increase in the number of annual ITEC scholarships from 7 to 15 per year. India’s exports to Guatemala totaled US$73 million in 2006, while imports were only three million. But New Delhi would like to upgrade the pace of trade. For example, India has set up an Information Technology Training Centre in Guatemala run by Tata Consulting Services, India’s largest software firm. In addition, the Reliance group is reportedly exploring the possibility of constructing a refinery in Guatemala, according to a recent report by the Indian publication, The Statesman.

In May, India and Mexico signed a Memorandum of Understanding to set up a bilateral high level group (HLG) to explore, among other issues, the possibility of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) to improve bilateral trade between the two countries. The Statesman has reported that high-level ministerial authorities have been involved in the development of bilateral trade arrangements, with both countries keen to achieve the trade target of US$3 billion. Additionally, Tata Consultancy Services, has announced plans to hire 5,000 personnel in Mexico over the next five years to serve its clients in the U.S.

Canada
A January 14th article in the Financial Express evaluated the workings of the Canada-India Business Council (C-IBC) which had been set up in 1982. Canada had imposed a freeze on strategic aspects of trade after India’s 1998 series of nuclear tests, but relations have improved since, especially after a draft nuclear agreement was signed between the two countries in September 2005. India’s trade with Canada is currently around $3 billion. The article goes on to point out existing aspects between India and Canada that have facilitated relations, like their mutual membership in the Commonwealth and the predominance of the English language in India. The fact that India possesses major mineral deposits, for which Canada has the expertise and technology to effectively exploit, is another issue for concideration. At the same time, Canada’s automotive sector “is suffering,” while India can provide inexpensive Trinidad labor for the inductry. An example of the potential that could come from close Indo-Canadian ties occurred in January of this year, when Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty visited India with a 100-member trade mission.

South America
“The bilateral trade between India and Peru has shown a quantum growth from $82 million in 2001 to $190 million in 2005 and we need to build up an integrated approach in our investments and partnership,” observed Victor Munoz, the charge d’ affairs of the Peruvian embassy in India. Total exports from Peru to its clients touched US$17 billion and imports accounted for $12.5 billion in 2005. Of this figure, mining constitutes more than half of Peru’s exports. Munoz continued, “Peru is a good investment destination for India in these areas because the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and the US provides a platform for Indian investors to export to the U.S.” Peru-India Chambers of Commerce Vice President Marco Hurtado observed that on August 15 of this year, Peruvian President Alan García Pérez met with a group of Indian businessmen to discuss the possibility of a US$1.2 billion investment aimed at constructing a petrochemical plant in Peru, according to the Lima daily La República.

Furthermore, on July 16, Asia Pulse issued a report about the statements made by Jorge Heine, the Chilean Ambassador to India. The diplomat argued that Chile is keen on reducing its trade imbalance with India and at the same time boosting the unfavorable trade volume between the two countries, to their mutual interest. Addressing the members of the Chamber of Commerce, Heine gave a comparative figure of the exports between the two countries, pointing out that in 2006 exports from Chile to India stood at US$1.7 billion, tripling its 2006 export figures. Heine also said that 95 per cent of the exports from mineral-rich Chile to India were made up by copper. An article by Business Line also highlights Indo-Chilean relations, mentioning how the preferential Trade Agreement with India (signed in 2006, and covering 300 products on both sides), has been ratified by the Chilean Congress. Pointing out that Chile’s exports to India have grown exponentially from US$230 million in 2003, to US$1.7 billion last year, he said, “We expect Chilean exports to India to exceed the figure of $2 billion in 2007.” Meanwhile, India has moved to the 10th largest Chilean trade partner globally, up from 20th in 2003, and according to Heine, “our exports to India are more than that to Germany, the UK and Spain”

However, there may be some tensions in the future trade patterns involving New Delhi and Santiago. Japan and Chile want India to reduce its steep import tariffs on wines and spirits. While they have not formally raised a direct dispute against India regarding the issue, they have requested the World Trade Organization (WTO) to allow them to participate as a third party in the panel’s proceedings which hopefully will sort out the dispute.

When it comes to South America, the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister, Kamal Nath, has said that “a trilateral arrangement between India, Mercosur and SACU (South Africa Customs Union) is on the way to widen [the] scope of South-South Cooperation.” Following the conclusion of a Preferential Trade Agreement in 2005, India and Mercosur agreed to grant mutual tariff concessions, ranging from 10 per cent to 100 per cent on 450 tariff lines.

What does this signify?
Using a variety of strategies, from historical ties, to traditional trade, to sharing grandiose plans, India is becoming more and more a living presence in the Western Hemisphere. It still has a long way to go, however, before it becomes a household name among Latin Americans, but it certainly is on the right path. India’s relations with Cuba may perhaps annoy Washington, as well as its dealings with close U.S. neighbors (Canada and Mexico), which may also draw some unwanted attention, however, it is the India-Brazil alliance that should be gathering the bulk of Washington’s attention. The global aspirations of both nations continue to rise even higher, with a very bright future seeming to lie ahead.