India and Brazil Sign Partnership Agreement on Critical Minerals

On 21 February 2026, Brazilian President Lula da Silva and Indian PM Narendra Modi witnessed the signing a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate on #CriticalMinerals. President Lula was in Delhi to attend the AI Impact Summit 2026 (#AIImpact2026).

The official line is to ‘strengthen supply chain resilience’, but the aim is to loosen the tight grip of China on this sector. Both countries also wish to show the way for the #GlobalSouth by developing independent supply chains independent of both the US and China.

The scope of the cooperation under the Memorandum includes reciprocal investment, exploration, extraction, as well as #AI applications. Brazil is endowed with the world’s second-largest reserves of #RareEarths. Brazil is the largest producer of iron ore, behind Australia, which is a key commodity for a fast-developing economy like India, be it for construction, shipbuilding, automobiles, or trains.

President Lula qualified the agreement as ‘pioneering’, while PM Modi underscored it as ‘a major step towards building resilient supply chains.’ Based on its #ViksitBharat strategy, India plans to develop semiconductor and electronics manufacturing in India. These sectors require Critical Minerals and Rare Earths to function.

In addition to the MoU on Critical Minerals, nine other agreements were also signed to boost cooperation in a number of sectors ranging from #digitalization to health. Other cooperation areas include education and scientific research.

Brazil is India’s largest trade partner in Latin America, and both sides have set a target to push the bilateral trade volume to USD 20 billion by 2030. India exports mostly refined petroleum to Brazil, while Brazil exports mostly raw cane sugar to India.