Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to be chief guest at Republic Day parade

President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, will be on a state visit to India from January 24-27, and he will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. This will be the first high-level visit of the year to India. Bolsonaro will be accompanied by 8 Ministers, 4 members of the Brazilian Parliament, senior officials and a large business delegation.

This is the third time that a Brazilian President will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade. The last time India had a Brazilian President as chief guest was in 2004. 

After assuming office on January 1, 2019, this is the first visit of President Bolsonaro to India.  However, he has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice – first, on the sidelines of G-20 meeting in Osaka in June last year and second, at the BRICS Summit in Brasilia in November 2019.

"India and Brazil have very warm and friendly relations. And as two democracies, we have shared values, we have shared approaches. Our bilateral relations were elevated to the level of a Strategic Partnership in 2006. And as two developing countries we have similar developmental and global aspirations, this has led to the convergence of mutual interest in many areas. The relations are strong not only at the bilateral level, but also at the plurilateral level, we are both members of BRICS, IBSA and G20, and in multilateral fora also we coordinate, particularly at the United Nations," according to an official statement.

The statement further said that "our economic engagement has been growing. The current trade levels are USD 8.2 billion. India is exporting about  USD 3.8 billion, which includes agrochemicals, synthetic yarns, auto parts, pharmaceuticals and some petroleum products. Brazil’s exports to India are USD 4.4 billion, and these include crude oil, gold, vegetable oil, bulk minerals, and ores.

Other areas which will be the focus of discussion during the agriculture, food processing and animal husbandry.

Bolsonaro will arrive on January 24. On January 25, he will be accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhawan followed by a visit to Raj Ghat. This would be followed by official talks with PM Modi, and thereafter there will be an exchange of agreements as well as press statements by both the leaders. Modi will host a lunch for the visiting delegation.

On January 26, Bolsonaro will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day Parade. On the next day, there will be the India-Brazil Business Forum where he will be the keynote speaker.