President Jair Bolsonaro was recently on a four-day visit with the objective of expanding trade relations with India. India rolled out the red carpet for Brazil’s President Jair Messias Bolsonaro. He came to India as a chief guest at India’s 71st Republic Day Parade. Here, President Jair met with the Indian Prime Minister to intensify trade relations with the largest democratic country in the world.
The Brazilian media was full of praise for India. The media was amused by the colourful parade at the majestic Rajpath. On 26 January 2020, the Republic Day parade was held where the President Ram Nath Kovind and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro were present. Captain Tania Shergill led an all-men marching contingent at the Republic Day parade making India proud. One of the main attractions at Republic Day parade was the ‘Trishul’ manoeuvre by the Su-30 MKIs of the Indian Air Force.
This is the third time that a Brazilian President visited India as a chief guest at the Republic Day. The last time a Brazilian President was the chief guest was in 2004 when Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attended the parade.
Bilateral talks were held between President Bolsonaro and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after which 15 acts were signed between the two nations. This was the first visit of President Bolsonaro to India after he assumed office on January 1, 2019.
In 2018-19, the bilateral trade between India-Brazil stood at $7.57 billion. The two countries are looking forward to increasing it to $25 billion in next three-four years.
Secretary (East) in the External Affairs Ministry Vijay Thakur Singh said, “The visit of President Bolsonaro is an extremely important visit. It will be an opportunity to re-energise our strategic partnership and take it forward in a focused manner”.
The visit of President Jair Bolsonaro was a crucial visit and Brazilian media praised India a lot for a magnificent welcome received by President Jair. President Jair said that it would be an opportunity to further strengthen the bilateral ties.
