India Challenges China with Latin America Charm Offensive

To be a “leading power,” India is going to have to become significantly more influential in Latin America, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar asserted in a speech on Wednesday in which he revealed New Delhi’s plans to greatly enhance commercial and geopolitical ties to the region.

Growing Indian influence in Latin America would be a direct challenge to communist China, which has invested heavily in making Latin America’s largest economies dependent on its manufacturing and agricultural imports and in propping up the region’s bloodiest dictatorships, all of which are ideologically aligned with Beijing. The Chinese Communist Party has helped both the dictatorships of Venezuela and Cuba avoid total economic collapse, become Brazil’s largest trade partner (even under self-proclaimed conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro), and made significant moves towards dominating Chile’s lucrative mineral industry.