Rio de Janeiro, July 7 (IANS) ​Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with the President of Uruguay, Yamandu Orsi, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday.

The two leaders held discussions covering the full spectrum of bilateral relations. They reviewed cooperation in the areas of digital collaboration, ICT, Digital Public Infrastructure and UPI, defence, railways, health and pharmaceuticals, agriculture, energy, culture and people-to-people linkages.

A key area of discussion was strengthening bilateral trade and investment.

Both sides expressed interest in the expansion of the India-MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement, aiming to unlock greater economic potential and trade complementarities.

Prime Minister expressed gratitude to President Orsi for the strong condemnation of the recent barbaric terrorist attack in Pahalgam and appreciated Uruguay’s solidarity with India in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

The meeting reaffirmed the commitment of both countries to develop a forward-looking bilateral partnership.

PM Modi has earlier visited Brazil on three occasions, the first in July 2014, followed by another visit in 2019 to attend the BRICS summit, and in November last year to attend the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.

On this occasion, Prime Minister Modi will be arriving in Brasilia after attending the two-day 17th BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where he also held a number of bilateral meetings with leaders of Latin American countries, as India continues to reach out to the world.

Before leaving for the ongoing five-nation visit, PM Modi had expressed confidence that his visits to the countries will reinforce India’s bonds of friendship across the Global South, strengthen partnerships on both sides of the Atlantic, and deepen engagements in the multilateral platforms such as BRICS, the African Union, ECOWAS and the CARICOM.

In Trinidad and Tobago, a country with which India shares a deep-rooted historical, cultural, and people-to-people connection, Prime Minister Modi had reiterated New Delhi’s continued support for CARICOM to enhance the Global South partnership.

Interestingly, this was the second visit of Prime Minister Modi to the Caribbean region in a span of eight months – he had previously visited Guyana in November 2024 – and shows the immense importance that India accords to the Caribbean countries and reflects India’s growing partnership with CARICOM.

–IANS

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