Argentina- India relations
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Introduction
Some salient facts
July 6, 2025: The Indian Express
India and Argentina celebrated 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2024, and seek to build on cooperation in several areas, including defence, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, renewable energy, trade and investment. Trade in the mineral resources sector is significant, with Argentine reserves of lithium of key interest for India’s green energy transition. India was Argentina’s fifth-largest trading partner in 2024.
Here are three lesser-known facts about bilateral relations between the two countries.
The last visit by an Indian PM was by Indira Gandhi in 1968. As Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi visited Argentina as part of her tour of South American nations in 1968. In a post on X, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh recalled that Indira Gandhi had met Victoria Ocampo in Buenos Aires, conferring upon the latter the honorary degree of Doctor of Literature of Rabindranath Tagore’s Visva Bharati University.
Indira Gandhi’s tour of South America also saw her visiting Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela and Guyana, as well as the island of Trinidad and Tobago in under a month.
The first recorded visit by an Argentine to India was in 1848.
According to Indologist Gustavo Canzobre, Indo-Argentinean relations date back to 1848 when the 17-year-old Argentine Lucio V. Mansilla visited India. Mansilla’s writings of his travels across India and East Asia were recorded in the book Diario de viaje a Oriente (1850-51) (Travel Journal to the Orient [1850-51]).
Canzobre described Mansilla as a “dandy” who “spent all his family business funds on having the very best of lives”. However, Argentine understanding of India and the ‘Orient’ or East Asia was coloured in a racialised, colonial narrative. “The city of Kolkata, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful in the world, must be considered under two aspects; first, the houses of the Europeans, which are magnificent, and second, the natives, who are the dirtiest and most disgusting imaginable,” Mansilla wrote in his journal. (‘India-Argentina: Past and Present of an Enduring Passion’, Gustavo Canzobre, 2018)
Tagore’s visit to a South American country would leave a transformative impact.
In November 1924, Rabindranath Tagore arrived in Argentina en route Peru, where he had been invited to attend the centenary celebrations of the Battle of Ayacucho, which secured Peruvian independence from Spanish colonial rule. However, he fell ill on arriving in Buenos Aires, having just completed a particularly gruelling tour of Europe. The writer, Victoria Ocampo, a patron of the arts and an intellectual who challenged male domination of the literary world, was a fan of Tagore’s work and invited him to recuperate at her Buenos Aires estate.
During his stay in Argentina, Tagore composed the poetry collection Purabi, which included his reflections on his time spent in the country, according to a release by Visva Bharati University commemorating the centenary of this visit. He dedicated this collection to Ocampo, whom he affectionately called ‘Bijoya’.
Canzobre described Tagore’s influence on Ocampo as deeply significant, impacting the understanding of Indian philosophy in the South American nation, as well as a deep interest in Indian culture, dance, music and yoga. Ocampo translated, promoted and even organised exhibitions of his work. Ocampo’s magazine, Sur, was inspired by Tagore’s Vishva Quarterly, which promoted cross-cultural dialogue and exchange in a manner previously unknown.
