Transcript of Special media briefing by MEA on Prime Minister's visit to Argentina (July 05, 2025)
India - Ministry of External Affairs
July 05, 2025
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Buenas tardes, I warmly welcome you to this special press briefing by Secretary (East) Shri P. Kumaran, on the ongoing official visit of the Prime Minister of India to the Republic of Argentina. We also have with us for this press briefing our Ambassador to Argentina, Shri Ajaneesh Kumar, as also Joint Secretary who looks after Latin American countries in the Ministry of External Affairs, Shri Praphullachandra Sharma.
With that, I invite Secretary East to make his opening remarks. Sir.
Shri P. Kumaran, Secretary (East): Thank you, dear friends. Good afternoon to all of you. As you are all aware, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is on an official visit to Argentina.
The Prime Minister last visited Argentina in 2018 for the G20 Summit. However, this is the first bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 57 years, making it a historical visit. This morning, the Prime Minister started his engagements by laying a wreath at the bust of General San Martin, the revered Argentinian freedom fighter. The tribute acknowledged his enduring legacy and pivotal role in Argentina's independence movement.
Following the tribute, the Prime Minister was received at Casa Rosada by President Javier Milei, where he was accorded a ceremonial welcome. Subsequently, the two leaders had a brief tete-a-tete, followed by delegation level talks, during which they reviewed the entire range of bilateral relations. The Prime Minister took the opportunity to thank President Milei for extending warm hospitality to him, and his delegation and also appreciated the gracious welcome.
Both leaders agreed to enhance collaboration across a range of key sectors, including trade and commerce, technology, defense, space, health, and pharmaceuticals, and further deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries. I will go into details of some of the areas that were discussed subsequently in my presentation.
The two leaders discussed the necessity of diversifying and expanding bilateral trade. The Prime Minister requested Argentina's support in expanding the India-Mercosur preferential trade agreement, noting that such an expansion can bring mutual benefits for both sides and open up new opportunities. Both leaders also expressed interest in enhancing collaboration in the defense sector, where they felt that they can leverage their respective experiences and capabilities to increase cooperation and contribute to mutual strategic interests.
Both leaders also acknowledged the importance of the agriculture sector, and its significant contribution to the economies on both sides. They discussed the need to enhance market access for each other's agricultural and dairy products. They also emphasized the importance of sharing knowledge and technology to boost productivity and sustainability in the sector. To take this forward, they directed their teams to convene the Joint Working Group on agriculture at the earliest opportunity.
The Prime Minister highlighted India's strength in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, particularly the capacity to produce high quality affordable medicines. He discussed the possibility of India being moved from Annex II to Annex I of Argentina's pharmaceutical regulatory framework, which would facilitate smoother entry of Indian pharmaceutical products into the Argentine market. The Argentine side updated the Indian delegation on the fast-track approval process available for import of Indian medicines into Argentina, especially those medicines that had US FDA clearance or the EMA, European Medical Authority clearance. The Indian side mentioned that this would significantly benefit the people of Argentina by improving access to affordable and life-saving medicines and reduce the cost of healthcare in Argentina.
Other initiatives discussed in the health sector include initiatives in telemedicine, digital health solutions, and capacity building through training and knowledge exchange. The two leaders also had an opportunity to discuss cooperation in the energy and critical mineral sectors. The Prime Minister underlined India's growing energy and industrial needs and emphasized that Argentina could serve as a reliable partner in supporting India's developmental journey.
With the world's second largest shale gas and fourth largest shale oil reserves, along with substantial conventional oil and gas deposits, Argentina holds strong potential to become an important energy partner for India. Argentina's rich reserves of critical minerals, including lithium, copper, and rare earth elements, align with India's need for secure and sustainable resources to drive its clean energy transition and industrial growth.
As you all know, India and Argentina share a robust partnership in the field of space. In 2007, Argentina's first satellite was launched with the support of ISRO, India's space research organization. Building on this foundation, both leaders emphasized the need to strengthen further collaboration in the space sector.
The Prime Minister highlighted the significant growth of India's space industry, including the emergence of a vibrant private sector in space capable of building everything from rockets to satellites. Both sides agreed on exploring new avenues for cooperation, including satellite development, launch services, space applications, and also to cooperate on capacity building.
The Prime Minister thanked President Milei for extending strong support following the recent terrorist attack in Pahalgam in India's Jammu and Kashmir, and appreciated Argentina's solidarity during this difficult time. It is expected that the visit will further strengthen the strategic partnership between India and Argentina and allow us to explore new avenues of cooperation across a wide range of sectors.
These particularly include trade and investment, health and pharmaceuticals, defense and security, infrastructure, mining and mineral resources, agriculture and food security, green energy, information and communication technologies, digital innovation, disaster management, science and technology, education, and people-to-people linkages.
Just before we came in, President Milei hosted a lunch for the Prime Minister, and they had a chance to have a freewheeling discussion on a number of issues that were discussed between the two delegations. Let me try and briefly give a sense of what the conversation touched upon. The Prime Minister emphasized that India and Argentina share democratic values and therefore, they are natural partners and that we should use that to expand our cooperation to greater heights in the future.
The two leaders discussed cooperation under an initiative that India drives called the International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA), which protects and promotes cooperation between the member states of the IBCA in protecting some six identified big cats, lions, tigers, and jaguars, and so on, six of them. The Prime Minister welcomed Argentina to join the International Big Cat Alliance and to work with us on sharing experiences and capacity building in terms of conservation of the big cats.
The conversation also significantly dealt with the use of drones and multiple purposes for which they can be put into. The President showed a lot of interest in the uses that drones are being put to in India. There was discussion about using it to tackle IUU fishing (Illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing) especially encroaching fishermen into Exclusive Economic Zones of Argentina.
There was also talk about using drones for cattle management, increasing agricultural productivity for border surveillance. And the Argentinian side also talked about how drones could help in the surveillance of high-tension power transmission lines using drones instead of the traditional reliance on helicopters, which is much more expensive.
The Prime Minister also had a chance to brief President Milei on India's drone DD initiative and how it is being used to significantly improve productivity in agriculture by involving rural women in the use of drones to administer fertilizers, pesticides, et cetera, and also for land surveys to determine land boundaries, et cetera.
The Prime Minister also mentioned how drones had been used in India for emergency transport of medicines to remote areas during COVID, medicines and vaccines, of course, and also now how companies use drones to transport vegetables and fish, et cetera, to remote areas.
The Prime Minister briefed the president on how the Indian satellite system NAVIC is used for helping fishermen to identify schools of fish so that they can target their fishing in a much more efficient manner. The Prime Minister also spoke about how he uses drones to monitor progress in projects that are of special interest to him as part of his monthly project reviews. That was something that interested President Milei very much.
The other major topic of discussion during lunch was about India's UPI, Unified Payment Interface System, and how it has increased productivity in India, how it has led to very impressive formalization in the Indian economy, how it generates more data which can be used by the government and by economists to try and target various benefits to sections of the population more efficiently, how it generates a credit record that can be relied on for microcredit for farmers and small businesses, how the formalization of the economy has increased tax compliance, and so on.
President Milei was keen to understand how the UPI system works and how it helps the central bank control monetary policy in a more effective way, and therefore the two sides agreed that they should have a visit by a central bank delegation to visit India and to talk about various aspects of this.
The two sides also agreed on enhanced cooperation between the youthful population on the two sides, and there was talk about cooperation in the area of sports. Clearly, India's strengths in cricket and Argentina's strength in football, we're talking about exchanging experiences in sports management, and also to try and get officials on the two sides talking.
Another important area was cooperation in the area of startups, given that India has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. We also have a very vibrant innovation ecosystem, with many startups headed by very young founders, and how the two sides can use cooperation in the area of startups to solve problems of immediate interest to them.
Finally, they also had an opportunity to exchange views on how both Argentina and India as key players in the global south can work together in terms of resources, technology, and exchange of knowledge to try and promote the overall interests of the global south. I think I'll leave it there. I touched most parts of the conversation.
The Prime Minister also invited President Milei, let me just add there, to visit India at an early opportunity. He also invited the President to visit the Lion Sanctuary in Gujarat State in India and promised that it will be an enjoyable experience for him.
Thank you very much.
Unidentified Speaker: [Foreign Language]
Translator: You are aware that the pharmaceutical industry is very important for India, it's a priority for India, and you know that there are certain frictions with the local industry as to the entrance of medicines produced in India to be sold in Argentina.
Unidentified Speaker: [Foreign Language]
Translator: Then I would like to know, I mean, if India is interested in investing in energy. The President of the largest Argentine oil company, YPF, made a tour to India. Therefore, I would like to know whether there are news about these investments to be made by India in the mid or short term.
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Please.
(inaudible audio)
Natasha Niebieskikwiat, Clarín Newspaper: Hello, I have two questions. But I would like to know this. Mr. Milei got out from the BRICS, and India uses the BRICS as a counterbalance for China, so it is very positive for you to be in BRICS. Did the President spoke about the benefits of being in or out of the BRICS?
And the second question is, as much as I know from my experience, India has tried to sell airplanes and lots of materials and equipment in the defense area, but it couldn't because finally Argentina chose the United States, for example, now. And in the case of drones, for example, they are leaning to the Israelis, for example, and they have the Turks now. So, what specific areas are you talking about now in the defense area with Argentina? My name is Natasha Niebieskikwiat. I am from Clarín newspaper.
Unidentified Speaker: [Foreign Language]
Translator: I would like to build upon the question that has been raised before and about medicines. I would like to know whether there are some agreements with provinces. And then about YPF, I would like to know whether the ruling issued by Judge Presca would somehow stop the MOU that has been signed with Argentina.
Unidentified Speaker: Sir, you spoke of lithium and critical minerals. I understand that there are existing concessions granted to some Indian companies. Can we expect a few more as a result of today's discussions?
Unidentified Speaker: So just to add a very short question that this visit of any Indian Prime Minister is happening after 15 years, 57 years. So with what aim this visit was scheduled? And has India and Argentina both achieved the targets as far as the bilaterals between both the nations are concerned?
Shri P.Kumaran, Secretary (East): Sure. I'll try and address these in the order in which I understood it. Pharmaceuticals, yes, India has many strengths. We export to many markets around the world, including to Western markets. In fact, a number of Indian factories of pharmaceuticals have certifications by the WHO, GMP, Good Manufacturing Practices. And a number of Indian medicines are accepted into the US market because of US FDA approvals for specific formulations and for specific production facilities.
We export to Europe and Argentina. Confirmed today to us, the Argentinian side, that the medicines that already have US FDA approval or EMA approval will be allowed to be directly imported into Argentina.
We have a separate dialogue ongoing on how we would like to move from category two to category one or annex 2 to annex 1. For that, there is still some process compliances required. But wherever we have FDA or EMA approval, we were told that the medicines can come directly into Argentina.
On energy investments, we still have an MOU between YPF and two Indian companies, IOC and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. We want to try and work on making investments in India, getting concessions on oil exploration and oil production. So, this is an ongoing dialogue. We hope to be able to reach some conclusion and our investments can start in such a way that we can also enter production sharing agreements or in any other format that Argentina would like.
Critical minerals, let me change the order a little bit. Argentina is a part of the lithium triangle. It is of great interest to us. We had two Indian public sector companies, Coal India Limited and also a consortium called KABIL, which is specifically tasked with picking up critical minerals assets outside India. They have signed five concession agreements, and they are working on how to finalize investments and how to work out the implementation of the investments in such a way that minerals can be produced here, refined and taken to India for various purposes.
I believe that there are two private sector companies also, one from India called Greenco and another Indian-owned company based in the UAE called World Metal Alloys, which is also invested in lithium concessions in Argentina. Hopefully, we will have more cooperation coming in the coming years.
On BRICS, there was a very interesting question. I am not sure I agree with your reasoning about why India entered BRICS but let me try and limit myself to the fact that there was no discussion on BRICS between India and Argentina today. And therefore, the other points that you mentioned did not arise.
Drones, yes, Israel has one of the most vibrant drone production, drone technology systems in the world. Our industry also collaborates extensively with Israel, but we use drones for a large number of reasons that I explained to you in my initial presentation. And the President clearly showed a lot of interest in the applications that we use for drones, especially for agriculture, animal husbandry, monitoring transmission lines, etc. And anything that led to an increase in productivity in economic activity was of great interest to President Milei.
So, he absorbed a lot of the uses that we have for drones in India very keenly and said he would like to understand more. And therefore, a big business delegation will be going to India in the next couple of months. And they would be talking to startup founders in India and finding ways to use drones for various purposes.
Defense cooperation areas, I mentioned about helicopters, and you wanted to know which are the other areas of interest. Argentina has a fleet of helicopters that need maintenance. We have a fair amount of experience in maintaining helicopters. And therefore, we thought we could be of support in maintenance, repair and overhauling of helicopters. We also have some technological platforms, but clearly our defense and security environment around India is very different from that of Argentina and therefore while we have offered a number of these platforms where we have strengths, we would very much go by Argentina's convenience on which platforms are of interest to them. That's about it.
Yeah. Agreements with provinces. No, we haven't spoken about any agreements with provinces. But we would very much welcome any interest from the Argentinian side for any such initiative and then discuss it with our team.
Shri Randhir Jaiswal, Official Spokesperson: Thank you, sir. With that, ladies and gentlemen, we come to the close of this press briefing. Thank you very much for your presence.
Buenos Aires
July 05, 2025
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