NEW DELHI: With the Centre hoping to get access to the huge oil reserves of Brazilian pre-salt region, India is laying out the red carpet for Brazil’s first woman president Dilma Rouseff.
Sixty four-year-old economist Rouseff will be the only head of the state at the BRICS summit to be given the protocol of a state visit, while the other three - China’s Hu Jintao, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and South Africa’s Jacob Zuma will be on a short, working trip.
“She has never visited India before and will be coming all the way from Brazil for the summit. So, we wanted to use it for a bilateral visit. Prime Minister’s office also thought that it will be a good idea and approved that it should be converted into a state visit,” said a senior MEA official.
Among the top of the India’s bilateral agenda is that the Indian hydrocarbon companies like the ONGC be given access to the massive oil reserves in the offshore Tupi fields, which were discovered in 2007 and considered as the largest discovery in the western hemisphere in the last 30 years.
“It’s not a new offer. So far, Brazil has not been keen in getting foreign companies to the pre-salt oil, rightly thinking that the national company Petrobras can manage.