President Lula interview: ‘As two of the world’s largest democracies and dynamic economies, India and Brazil cannot remain distant’

What concrete measures and agreements are expected to be made during your visit to New Delhi to deepen and diversify trade between India and Brazil?

Bilateral trade between Brazil and India reached its highest level in 2025 but remains well below its real potential. There are 1.4 billion people in India and 215 million people in Brazil. It makes no sense that our trade is only $15 billion. Therefore, significantly expanding our trade flows is one of the main objectives of this visit. We will sign various agreements to achieve this goal. We will sign agreements on critical minerals, the first of their kind signed by Brazil, and on small and medium-sized businesses, a sector that creates millions of jobs. During my visit, I will also attend the Brazil-India Business Forum, which will be attended by 600 representatives from the private sectors of both countries. Because it is the private sector, through partnerships and joint projects, that will transform the excellent relationship we have with India into shared prosperity for our societies.

Brazil and India cannot remain distant. The world’s two largest democracies, with extraordinarily diverse cultures and dynamic economies, have an imperative to establish much closer relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I are working towards this goal.

You, along with several ministers, are traveling with the largest Brazilian business delegation ever brought to India. What is the importance of India to Brazil’s long-term economic strategy, especially at a time when emerging economies are seeking new markets in an age of tariffs and trade wars?

I often say that the answer to the multilateralism crisis is more multilateralism. And the answer to trade wars is more international trade. Diversifying trade partnerships with both emerging and traditional economies is a central part of Brazil’s strategy. We have a strong rapprochement with India on this issue. This rapprochement now needs to turn into concrete results.

As Mercosur, we signed a partnership agreement with the European Union. Less than two weeks later, India followed suit. We now need to make the expansion of the Mercosur-India trade agreement a reality. We have complementary interests in areas such as biofuels, artificial intelligence, science and technology, defence, space industry and healthcare. We are both in favor of fair, multilateral, open and rules-based trade under the World Trade Organization (WTO). The futures of Brazil and India are closely linked.

You attended the AI ​​Impact Summit in Delhi. How can Brazil and India lead to broader cooperation in AI among Global South countries, ensuring equitable access to technology, shared development, and rules that serve their interests?

We must avoid a new form of colonialism: digital colonialism. The development of artificial intelligence is irreversible, but it cannot become the privilege of a few countries or a tool of manipulation in the hands of billionaires. Brazil and India are interested in a liberating AI that reflects the face of the Global South, strengthens cultural diversity, and serves as a tool for peace, not war.

We need every chip, every algorithm, to bear the mark of social inclusion. To achieve this, we need intergovernmental governance of AI. It is urgent that the United Nations be at the center of this debate and that all states come to the table. As the AI ​​Impact Summit organized by the government of India demonstrates, our countries have the conditions to be at the forefront of this agenda.

Brazil emphasized the importance of India’s BRICS presidency in 2026. What are your expectations regarding India’s leadership in the bloc, especially the reform of global governance institutions?

Brazil handed over the BRICS presidency to India in 2026. I am confident that India’s presidency will advance important Brazilian initiatives for cooperation within the bloc in areas such as health and combating socially determined diseases, climate change and artificial intelligence.

When it comes to global governance, we are witnessing an unprecedented collapse of multilateralism. The paralysis of the United Nations and the Security Council has contributed to the escalation of armed conflicts around the world to levels not seen since the end of World War II.

BRICS has a very important role to play in this process. The group advocates for multilateralism and has legitimacy in discussions about a renewed governance in which the voice of the Global South carries weight.

Brazil and India agree that global governance institutions must reflect the new multipolar reality of the 21st century and effectively promote peace. We are countries that have traditionally advocated reform of the Council to make it more legitimate, representative, effective and democratic. At this stage of the 21st century, it makes no sense for the Security Council not to include India, Brazil and African countries as permanent members.

We fully support India’s BRICS chairmanship in advancing these goals.

The Mercosur-India trade agreement, which has been pending for a long time, is also expected to be discussed during your visit. Do you see this trip as a defining moment to advance this framework, especially in light of the recent Mercosur-European Union agreement and changing global trade patterns?

When I took office again as President of Brazil at the beginning of 2023, I committed to opening new markets and establishing commercial partnerships around the world. We opened more than 500 markets in three years and signed important trade agreements with the European Union (EU), EFTA and Singapore through Mercosur.

These agreements are multilateralism’s response to protectionism and the logic of trade wars that impoverish countries and increase inequality. Prime Minister Modi shares a very similar view to ours on the importance of trade agreements.

In this spirit, expanding the Mercosur-India Agreement, in force since 2009, is among the priorities of my visit. In its current form, the deal is quite limited as it only covers a small percentage of products. We will expand this and still reduce barriers to our trade. In doing so, we will increase our trade flows, which remain far below the size of our countries and economies.

At a time when multilateralism is under pressure and major powers are redefining trade and security rules, how do you see Brazil and India working together to create a more balanced, rules-based global order that reflects the interests of the Global South?

Brazil and India have long worked closely together in international forums. At the World Health Organization (WHO), we defend health sovereignty and access to medicines, vaccines and essential inputs for public health. As WTO, we are in favor of rules-based trade.

A new global order requires reform of international institutions and strengthening of multilateralism and diplomacy. The current architecture was designed in 1945 and does not reflect today’s world. But many other institutions also need to change. The World Bank, for example, needs reform to expand its participation in the leadership of developing countries. The WTO also needs to regain its role in regulating international trade.

Brazil and India are particularly well positioned to drive these transformations. As members of the G20, BRICS and IBSA, we act to openly defend multilateralism. We are natural partners in finding solutions to some of the greatest challenges of our time: eradicating hunger and poverty and combating climate change. We are also two of the world’s ten largest economies and two of its largest democracies. We support universal diplomatic traditions. The “strategic diversity” pursued by India coincides with the universality of Brazilian foreign policy. We are countries that interact with everyone without automatic alignments. We are the bridge between the Global North and the Global South, between the West and the East. We want to continue expanding our relations with the world. It has long been said that it is natural for Brazil and India to work more closely together. For all these reasons, it is now time to turn this potential into reality.