Argentina’s Foreign Minister Hector Marcos Timerman will visit India this weekend, as he looks to drum up business for its still-ailing economy.
Timerman will arrive in India on Saturday evening with a 20-member delegation of senior officials from the Argentine ministries of foreign affairs, economy and foreign trade, and agriculture.
On Monday, he will co-chair the India-Argentina Joint Commission meeting, along with External Affairs minister Salman Khurshid.
As per the MEA, the two sides will discuss progress on entire gamut of bilateral relations from political, economic and commercial, agriculture, science and technology, defence and cultural issues and identify newer areas of cooperation.
Khurshid had visited Argentina earlier this year in February. In 2002, Argentine president Cristina Kirchner visited India, during which both sides agreed to work towards a Strategic Partnership. Argentina is still recovering from its 2002 economic collapse, with galloping inflation undermining some recent growth in the economy, due to boom in consumption.
The current trade volume is about $2 billion, with Indian investment in Argentina estimated to be around $930 million.
There are around 13 Indian companies in Argentina, who employ around 7,000 Argentines. Out of them, eight of them alone are in the Information Technology sector, including TCS and Cognizant Technologies. Besides, oil and gas is a new sector for cooperation, with ONGC videsh having signed a MoU with Enarsa for joint ventures in oil exploration.
The Reliance has also formed a joint venture with an Argentine oil company Pluspetrol for exploration and production in an oil block in Peru.