India signs three deals with 'key global partner' Brazil

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday described Brazil as India's "key global partner" as the two countries inked three deals on cooperation in environment issues, consular and mobility issues, and for augmentation of a Brazilian earth station for receiving and processing data from Indian remote sensing satellites.

Modi, who was received by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff with full military honours at the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia, reaffirmed to her "vast potential" for cooperation between the two countries.

"Modi noted that as two democracies and major emerging economies, India and Brazil not only had vast potential for bilateral cooperation, but also to strengthen each other in international forums and advance the interest of the developing world at large," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.

Rousseff, whom Modi congratulated for hosting an "excellent" FIFA World Cup, emphasised the international significance of the partnership between India and Brazil.

"Rousseff congratulated Narendra Modi for his impressive victory in the (Lok Sabha) elections and wished him all success for India's progress and development," the statement said.

The two leaders agreed to take steps to further expand and diversify trade and investment flows and deepen cooperation in agriculture and dairy science, conventional and renewable energy, space research and applications, defence, cyber security and environment conservation.

Through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on environment issues, the two countries mutually agreed to extend cooperation on climate change, biodiversity, afforestation in arid areas, water conservation and protection of wetlands, waste management among other things.

India and Brazil also signed an agreement on the establishment of a consultation mechanism on consular and mobility issues.

They agreed to establish a bilateral mechanism for consultation on bilateral consular and mobility issues and on bilateral legal cooperation, including issues related to the movement of people between the two countries.

The two nations further agreed for cooperation in augmentation of a Brazilian earth station for receiving and processing data from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites.

The agreement designated the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the Brazilian executive agency for earth observation data reception, processing, archiving, and distribution, to take responsibility and to work together with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its executive agency, the National Remote Sensing Centre, in order to accomplish the actions in the agreement.

Modi described the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit as "a historic one, which has produced two important agreements - the New Development Bank and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement - and lauded Rousseff for her guidance during the summit".

"As leaders of G4 countries, Modi and Rousseff called for urgent progress on reforms of the United Nations, including the Security Council, by the time of the 70th anniversary of the UN in 2015," the statement said.