India-Paraguay Relations: Paraguay President’s Visit To Boost Cooperation

Paraguay’s President is on his first official visit to India adding new dimensions to India-Latin America relations.

He is on a three-day visit to India to explore ways to expand overall cooperation.

Key Highlights of the Visit

Terrorism: Paraguay supported India in its fight against terrorism by expressing its strong condemnation of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir.
Shared Challenges: Both nations discussed and realised the possibility of cooperation in fight against shared challenges such as cybercrime, organised crime, and drug trafficking.
Cooperation: Both the nations discussed upon new opportunities for cooperation in areas such as digital technology, critical minerals, energy, agriculture, healthcare, defence, railways, space and overall economic partnership
Joint Commission Mechanism (JCM): A joint commission mechanism (JCM) established at the Secretary / Vice-Ministerial level will serve as a key platform to review and advance cooperation in priority areas of mutual interest.
Expanding presence in Latin America: New Delhi wishes to further expand its engagement with the South American trading bloc MERCOSUR beyond the preferential trade arrangement route.
AgriStack: Paraguay has expressed interest in India’s Agristack Platform to use digital platforms in making its agriculture more efficient.

Bilateral diplomatic ties between the two nations were established in 1961.
- India opened its embassy in Paraguay’s capital Asuncion in 2022.
Bilateral Trade: The India-Paraguay bilateral trade stood at USD 477 million with balance of trade shifted towards India.
- India’s Exports to Paraguay: It is worth USD 317 million and includes motor vehicles, agrochemicals, auto parts and pharmaceutical products.
- India’s Import: India imported goods worth USD 160 million and includes soya oil and related products, iron and steel, aluminium, and animal products.
Technical and Development Cooperation: India offers 20 scholarships under the ITEC program to Paraguay.
India-MERCOSUR Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA): Preferential duty (10-20 % in most cases) is given to certain Indian Products entering MERCOSUR countries and vice versa.
- India offers an additional 10% margin of preference to Paraguay for a Tariff Rate Quota of imports of crude soybean oil up to 30000 MT/year.

Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America.
Neighbours: It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest.
Capital City: Asunción

Established: It is a South American trade bloc established in 1991 including 5 full member states of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay and Bolivia ( Signed in 2015 and Ratified by Bolivia in July 2024)
- Venezuela’s membership has been suspended in 2016.
Aim: To establish a customs union and a common market, allowing for the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people among member countries.
Official Working Languages: Spanish and Portuguese.

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