The XI BRICS Summit will take place on 13-14 November 2019, at the Itamaraty Palace, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. PM Modi is scheduled to participate in the summit and is likely to sign agreements on investment and plan of action in many key areas that India and Brazil can cooperate during his visit to Brasilia in November for the BRICS Summit, Ambassador of Brazil André Aranha Corrêa do Lago said on September 20 in Bengaluru. The Ambassador was Bengaluru to participate in the opening ceremony of the Honorary Consulate on Friday.

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"It is essentially the bilateral relationship that we have to strengthen and I believe, thanks to this visit, we are going to sign a very important agreement on investment," he said.

He further said that it would be the first time that India was going to sign a new model of investment agreement because the country has denounced the former model and is renegotiating with the new model, reported PTI.

"We are also going to probably sign a plan of action in which we will be able to determine many things we are going to do in different areas...like science and technology, education and culture," Ambassador of Brazil said.

Pointing out that the Prime Minister is scheduled to arrive in Brazil a day earlier, he said the bilateral meeting would be held before the BRICS meeting.

"We have close political relations. Not only (do) we belong to BRICS, but also several others like IBSA G4 and in many other multilateral groups like G20, etc. But strengthening bilateral relations between India and Brazil is the key and this is what we can achieve from PM Modi's visit, which will be to create a new step in our relationship and making it more natural," he said.

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India-Brazil relations 

Stating that India and Brazil share a very strong relationship from the political point of view and also traditional trade, the Ambassador said it needs to be expanded a lot.

"We are two of the largest economies in the world.  India has surpassed Brazil super quickly in the last five years. Five years ago Brazil had a GDP that was larger than India, but India is growing 7-8 per cent a year. We are extremely happy to be very strong partners...we not only have a strong past and present, but also a strong future and we are going to need Bengaluru for that."

The Honorary Consulate in Bengaluru has an important role in promoting economic and cultural ties between Brazil and India, officials said, adding it would liaison with the business community and cater to the increasing number of Brazilians visiting this part of India.

"Bengaluru is already a mythic city in the world. The new economy knows about Bengaluru. We have many people very interested to come here," Ambassador Corra do Lago said.

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Shared concern for terrorism 

To a question on cross-border terrorism that India is facing, the Ambassador said Brazil completely knows that terrorism is the 'central concern' of India and it shares 'enormously' this concern. Also, his country has a 'strong interest' to exchange information with India in this regard, he said.

He said "terrorism has the potential to grow if we don't fight it very seriously. This is an area in which we are obviously cooperating... any moment terrorists can attack exactly where people think we are not prepared. So we have to be prepared and we have a very strong interest to exchange information with India on that."

He pointed out that Brazil is fortunately in a region that has not seen wars in many years and the last one was more than 150 years ago, with no terrorism issue. 

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(With inputs from PTI)