Friends, not foes: To land of Samba, from land of Yoga; Jaishankar to Brazilian counterpart

New Delhi, Jan 15 (IANS) Two decades back, they were considered to be archrivals as both the countries, India and Brazil, started campaigning hard for the permanent seat in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) since they were the two countries with striking similarities, one in the eastern hemisphere, the other from the southern hemisphere, known as the 'mirror image nations' in the diplomatic world.

Both are fast developing countries with emerging economies, huge land with large population, growing domestic consumer market and increasing youth population but tables turned around in 2006 when India and Brazil started their strategic partnership.

Since then, n-number of high-level visits, many bilateral MoUs, cultural exchanges and an India-Brazil Joint Commission for political, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation, a long voyage of bilateral diplomacy traveled, which has one more milestone on friday when India's External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar had a conversation with his Brazilian counterpart Carlos Franca.

India-Brazil have agreed to work closely for UNSC as both countries have been claiming their due -- the permanent membership in UNSC. India and Brazil, along with China, Russia and South Africa, engaged in multilateral diplomatic relations through BRICS, also agreed to expand this forum internationally and use it for strengthening their position globally.

Jaishankar and Carlos Franca also spoke about IBSA, the India-Brazil-South Africa forum, which has representation of three continents by their largest democracies. Both the Foreign Ministers discussed holding an early meeting of the India-Brazil Joint Commission.

"A productive discussion with Brazil Foreign MInister Carlos Franca. Agreed to hold an early meeting of our Joint Commission. Affirmed our commitment to work closely in the UNSC, BRICS and IBSA," the India's External Affairs Minister tweeted

In 2019, S. Jaishankar had met his former Brazilian counterpart Ernesto Araujo on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

On the sidelines of the BRICS Foreign Ministers' meeting held in Rio de Janeiro on July 25, 2019, General V.K. Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, met Brazilian Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo and had bilateral discussions.