Ambassadors of Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil attended a meeting organised by India to discuss closer ties

With the aim to further strengthen ties with Latin America, a senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs held a luncheon meeting with Latin American envoys on Monday.

The lunch was hosted by Secretary East Riva Ganguly Das and saw the participation of envoys of several countries like Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil.

Brazilian Ambassador Aranha Correa do Lago was quoted as saying to WION that both sides will work together to make the bilateral relationship even stronger and diverse.

“It was a great pleasure to be reunited with her since we had worked together at the Johannesburg Summit for Sustainable Development in 2002. I am thrilled that we will work together again, this time to make the Brazil-India relationship even stronger and more diverse,” he said.

This is the first in-person meeting of most of the envoys of the Latin American countries with the new secretary East.

Further, Venezuelan Envoy Coromoto Godoy also reiterated support for India.

"A wonderful interaction during lunch with the new Secretary East. She had this warm gesture of inviting us for lunch to meet all head of missions personally and to reiterate MEA’s interest in working closely with our region,” Godoy told WION.

India has been reaching out to Latin America, and a number of high-level visits have happened from India including that of PM Modi to Brazil for Brics, Argentina for G20, and Mexico for a bilateral visit in 2016.