SANTIAGO, Chile, CMC – Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries are being urged to strengthen and expand economic and cooperative relations with India to boost their economic growth and enhance development.
Delegates attending the “India-Latin America and the Caribbean: Emerging partners in a shifting global economy” organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) agreed that it is in the LAC’s best interest to boost its relationship with India.
The event included two high-level panels featuring experts and specialists from the region and India who debated topics such as bilateral relations in a transforming global economy and new frontiers for expanding trade and investment cooperation.
ECLAC’s executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, said the primary consideration proposed by this seminar is the need to reframe international integration of Latin America and the Caribbean through foresight.
“Integration with the world must be managed intelligently, that is, as a political tool to boost growth and development, drive productive transformation, bolster the region’s numerous assets, and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with a growing number of trade and economic partners,” Salazar-Xirinachs stated.
He noted that India is currently one of the world’s most dynamic emerging economies, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of nearly 3.7 trillion US dollars and a population of more than 1.4 billion people.
The ECLAC official added that India is currently the fifth-largest economy worldwide and is set to become the third-largest by 2030, driven by high growth and profound transformation, offering valuable lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean.
He noted that although economic relations between India and the region have shown increased momentum—with bilateral commerce of nearly 50 billion US dollars—they are still far from fulfilling their potential. Exchange is currently focused on a small number of products, with little presence of goods and services of greater added value.
However, current negotiations and the expansion of the India-Mercosur agreement are evidence of growing interest and an expanding economic agenda, he stated.
Latin America and the Caribbean must complement their traditional economic ties with a broader diversification strategy toward emerging economies such as India, the Gulf countries, ASEAN, and Africa.
“This proposal does not mean diminishing the importance of our main partners, such as the United States, China, and the European Union, or countries within the region, with whom we maintain solid relationships. Instead, it aims to complement that architecture with new spaces of cooperation that allow the region to act with greater agility in a more competitive global landscape,” he said.
“This means building resilience and a capacity for foresight, broadening our productive base, leveraging commercial and technological complementarities, and along with all this, adding essential drivers of growth and forms of reducing exposure to external shocks that imply higher costs for our economies and societies,” Salazar-Xirinachs noted.
He said that in an economy and global landscape characterized by intense industrial and technological rivalry, increasingly weaponized and competitive, the countries and regions that combine resilience, foresight, and proactive action will have the best chance of improving their development path.
“The future of the relationship between India and the region will depend on our ability to transform spaces like these into inputs for public policy, corporate partnerships, public-private projects, and mechanisms for sustainable cooperation. I hope this seminar will be a jumping-off point to compare analyses, share experiences, identify alignments, and work toward a shared roadmap,” he added.
India’s Ambassador to India, Abhilasha Joshi, noted that in a changing landscape, India and Latin America and the Caribbean are discovering new paths for cooperation.
“On this journey to bring our regions closer together, multilateral forums like ECLAC play a crucial role by providing analytical knowledge and platforms for dialogue,” she said, adding that India’s message to all countries in the region is one of cooperation, ambition, and shared prosperity.
“I’m sure that in the coming years, we will see a broader, deeper collaboration between India and Latin America and the Caribbean, with a greater impact than ever,” she said.
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