New Delhi, Sep 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) Uruguay's Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin has hailed India's leadership of BRICS and hosting of the highly successful BRICS Summit, asserting that the concrete and consensus-based Delhi Declaration has shown how Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed and reached agreement on many important and highly sensitive issues.
"I think the outcome of the summit was an incredible success. There were many questions and very few answers during the process of preparing for the summit about what might happen. But, we ultimately achieved a very serious, concrete and consensus-based final declaration, which addressed and reached agreement on many important and highly sensitive issues," Lubetkin told IANS in an interview.
"There were different protagonists involved in some of the ongoing wars and conflicts, but I think the Prime Minister and the Government of India, as the chair of the meeting, were able to facilitate the process and achieve consensus. That shows India as one of the key leaders at this moment, especially in the Global South. We do not need to simply use words, we need to look at the results and understand what India achieved," he added.
He also showered praise on PM Modi's leadership and highlighted India's diplomatic triumph for successfully aligning diverse interests with the BRICS nations reaching consensus and adopting the 'New Delhi Declaration' on the very first day of the summit despite sharply divergent geopolitical positions among various countries.
"The success of the summit was an Indian success, and it was also PM Modi's success. You could see during Saturday and Sunday how Prime Minister Modi interacted with some of the most important leaders in the world, and how those leaders listened to him and treated him as a real point of reference. I was not part of the bilateral meetings, but you could see that dynamism during the internal meetings. The fact that, at the end of the meetings, the Prime Minister announced that consensus had been achieved speaks louder than thousands of words about what Prime Minister Modi means at this moment
Lubetkin, who arrived in New Delhi last week, said he is very satisfied and happy with his visit as, besides attending the BRICS Summit, the purpose was to strengthen bilateral relationship with India and further develop the relationship between India and Mercosur.
Over the last four days, the Foreign Affairs Minister from Uruguay also held several key meetings, including with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar in New Delhi.
"It was a very important meeting with the Minister of External Affairs. One of the challenges we face, and I believe the Foreign Ministers of India and Uruguay are in exactly the same position, is that it is time to deepen and expand our relationship. In fact, this is linked to the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President (Yamandu) Orsi of Uruguay at the BRICS Summit in 2025 in Rio de Janeiro. It was their first meeting after many years, and they discussed a long-term process for strengthening relations between India and Uruguay. I was very impressed by Prime Minister Modi because he came to that meeting with a piece of paper beside him on which he had outlined his vision for the relationship over the next 10 to 15 years. It was a long-term mission," said Lubetkin.
The Uruguayan Foreign Minister hoped that both countries could achieve the desired goals before the planned October 2027 visit to India by President Yamandu Orsi.
"The challenge for our two Foreign Ministries is now to put into practice the understanding and agreements reached between the Prime Minister and President last year. During our half-hour meeting, we carried out a very interesting exercise and created a roadmap for India-Uruguay relations for the coming year. We are trying to translate the broad and strategic discussions between the two leaders into concrete action. There are many areas that we can develop over this one-year period of economic, political and cultural cooperation, among others".
According to Lubetkin, there is a strong synergy and agreement between the governments of India and Uruguay on the direction that they need to take to take the partnership to the next level.
"We also share a similar democratic vision on many issues, and there is a lot on which we can collaborate. I see three different highways, or tracks, that can work together. First, bilaterally, in areas such as the economy, culture, audiovisual cooperation, including Bollywood, as well as sports and many other fields. Second, today I agreed with the Minister of Trade to launch the next step in negotiations between Mercosur and India. This is a very important strategic process, not only for Uruguay but also for Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, the other Mercosur countries. The third track is through our regional roles. Uruguay currently chairs Mercosur and also chairs CELAC, which brings together 33 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. This provides another important avenue to develop relations between India and CELAC," he told IANS.
Later this month, Lubetkin and EAM Jaishankar are scheduled to meet again in New York during which a meeting between the Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean through CELAC is also likely to take place with the objective to deepen relations between the region and India.
"I have said this to some of my European colleagues as well: In Uruguay, this is a time for India. When I say this is a time for India, I mean that India is much stronger today than we could have imagined 20 or even 10 years ago. This creates a new scenario. I am absolutely convinced that if we agree on three or four important areas, including economic, cultural, sports, social and others, they will be important for both Uruguay and India. No country can work alone. Now is the moment to reach concrete agreements and move forward in a world marked by fragmentation, divisions and conflicts...
"In this regard, India has opened an Embassy in Uruguay for the first time in its history. As a young generation of diplomats in both countries, I hope the Indian Minister of External Affairs will come to Uruguay in the coming months to inaugurate the Embassy and continue working together to determine how we can develop our agreements in a concrete way," said Lubetkin.
Source: IANS
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