ARGENTINA

The plenary then gave way to country presentations—12 in all—where broad strategic arguments began to meet national realities. H.E. Mariano Agustín Caucino, Ambassador of Argentina to India, placed the relationship inside a changing world order. The global system, he argued, was moving towards the growing importance of Asia and the Indo-Pacific, with India’s ascent impossible to ignore. Latin America and the Caribbean could be reliable partners in India’s development ambitions, while Argentina’s relevance rested on three areas of strategic consequence: food security, energy security and mining security. Bilateral trade, he said, had grown from approximately US$2.5 billion five or six years earlier to more than US$5 billion, reaching US$6 billion in the previous year.

The Ambassador’s intervention acquired additional depth from the Argentine Embassy’s official release on his participation at LAC FIRST. The institutional relationship was not new: Argentina had maintained a resident Embassy in India since 1950 and a Consulate General in Mumbai since 2009; relations had been elevated to a Strategic Partnership in 2019, and an Agriculture Office had been established in Delhi. Argentina was already a leading supplier of edible oils to India, while lithium and copper were emerging within a relationship increasingly shaped by India’s requirements in food, energy and critical minerals. Ambassador Caucino’s larger argument was reciprocal. India was opening missions in the region, but Latin American countries, too, needed to devote greater attention to India and Asia.

The question was therefore no longer whether a relationship existed. It was why one with such obvious complementarities remained so underdeveloped.

CUBA

H.E. Juan Carlos Marsán Aguilera, Ambassador of Cuba to India, began with history but moved quickly beyond it. India had been among the first Asian countries to recognise the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and the relationship carried decades of political memory. Yet the contemporary offer he placed before the conference was strikingly specific. Cuba’s position at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico gave it potential as a window into the Caribbean and wider Latin America, while its scientific capabilities opened possibilities for a deeper biotechnology partnership with India.

Ambassador Marsán outlined an architecture built around co-production, co-research and technology transfer. Licensing, co-development, contract manufacturing, scientific cooperation and joint ventures formed part of the field he opened, alongside agriculture, mining, tourism and the Mariel Special Development Zone. This was not friendship preserved under glass. It was an invitation to build together.

JAMAICA

The country presentations resumed after lunch with a wider sweep of the region.

H.E. Jason Keats Hall, High Commissioner of Jamaica to India, arrived from another direction entirely. With humour, he challenged the tendency to speak of Latin America while allowing the Caribbean to vanish from the sentence, and even pointed to geographical errors in a map carried by India Empire. One of an ambassador’s jobs, he observed, was to generate awareness. Five centuries after Columbus had searched for India and reached the Caribbean instead, High Commissioner Hall joked, Jamaica was still trying to get India to reach the Caribbean.

His presentation moved from history to investment at speed. Jamaica offered special economic zones, English-language capabilities and a location within a four-hour flying radius of a vast share of the Western Hemisphere’s population. Indian passport holders did not require visas. The Port of Kingston and major international shipping lines strengthened the logistical case, while nearshore outsourcing, agribusiness and tourism added possibilities. Hall even traced the Indian Alphonso mango into Jamaica, where it had become the Bombay mango.

Yet his most memorable formulation was human. In the land of “One Love”, he said, relations should move beyond G2G, B2B and P2P towards H2H: heart to heart. Then he gave that warmth a commercial edge, arguing that there was an opportunity for a major Indian hotel brand, working with an Indian real-estate developer, to establish itself in Jamaica. Hall’s intervention captured something the conference repeatedly returned to: small markets could possess reach far beyond their population figures, while cultural familiarity, language and geography could become commercial assets when properly understood.

GUATEMALA

H.E. Omar Lisandro Castañeda Solares, Ambassador of Guatemala to India, brought Central America firmly into the frame. He described Guatemala as a “beacon of opportunities in Central America”, pointing to its strategic location, economic stability and business environment. His presentation moved through opportunities in sectors including agribusiness, textiles and apparel, infrastructure, energy, tourism, technology and services, while drawing attention to PRO Guatemala as part of the country’s investment and trade-promotion architecture.

The significance of Guatemala’s intervention lay partly in geography. Indian business discussions about the Western Hemisphere often leap from the large South American economies to Mexico and the United States, leaving Central America in a kind of commercial twilight. Ambassador Castañeda challenged that habit. Countries insufficiently familiar to Indian business could not be allowed to remain commercially invisible simply because they had not yet entered the usual corporate itinerary.

PANAMA

If Guatemala widened the map, H.E. Alonso Correa Miguel, Ambassador of Panama to India, challenged the room to use it. Latin America possessed critical minerals, oil, gas, ports, finance and logistics; Panama possessed the Canal, the Colón Free Trade Zone and a platform connecting wider markets. China had direct maritime routes and port connections with Panama. India had none.

“Why?” he asked.

The sharpest moment came when Ambassador Correa described Indian businesses approaching him to sell products. “I’m not the buyer,” he said. His role was to help them understand Panama as a gateway to other markets. Indian companies, he argued, were failing to grasp the opportunity. “Panama is being ignored, neglected. Why? You tell me.”

Suddenly, Dr Sahai’s mental block had a logistical address.

CHILE

The scale of that challenge surfaced vividly later, during Chile’s country presentation, when Mr Jorge Loyola, Commercial Director, Embassy of Chile, interrupted his own presentation with a quiz. Excluding the Latin American diplomats present, how many people in the room had actually visited Latin America?

Only a handful of hands rose.

“That’s the nature of the challenge,” Mr Loyola said.

Here, in its proper place in the day’s sequence, the moment acquired its real force. It was not a judgement on the audience, nor an awkward opening statistic with which to diminish the conference. It was a measurement of unexplored space. Amb. Guani had said India was coming “a little bit late”. Dr Sahai had identified a mental block. Panama had asked why India lacked direct maritime connections. Now a few raised hands gave those arguments human scale.

Mr Loyola used humour to describe Chile as the distant cousin living far away and speaking the “weird Spanish”, but his commercial argument was serious. Chile’s geography had given it distinctive agricultural and phytosanitary strengths; walnuts were among its “ambassadorial products”, and he told the audience that 80 per cent of the walnuts consumed during Diwali came from Chile. Yet he wanted the relationship to move beyond commodities towards fintech, mining technology, agritech and aquatech.

“The problem is the bridge,” he said.

Nothing could erase the roughly 15,000 kilometres separating India and Chile. But companies could travel. Roadshows could happen. Familiarity could be built. Distance was not being denied. It was being stripped of its right to make every decision.

The diplomatic breadth extended beyond those who took the stage, with H.E. Nadeska Cuthbert, Head of Mission, Embassy of Nicaragua, among those attending the conference. The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, was represented by Mr Lakshmi Chandra, Under Secretary, South America Division.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

The remaining country presentations continued to dismantle the idea of Latin America and the Caribbean as a single, distant commercial abstraction. Mr Gerardo Giglio,

Head of International Cooperation, Embassy of the Dominican Republic, presented his country as a nearshoring and manufacturing platform at the crossroads of the Americas, with free-trade zones supporting industries including medical devices, electronics, logistics and business services. The proposition was not simply that India should sell more to the Dominican Republic. Geography itself could be used strategically, with a Caribbean location becoming part of a wider route into regional and continental markets.

MEXICO

Mr Ricardo Daniel Delgado Muñoz, Head of Economic Affairs, Embassy of Mexico, described a relationship already moving beyond US$10 billion in bilateral trade, with more than 200 Indian companies established in Mexico. Nearshoring, industrial clusters and access to North America gave the country particular relevance, while Plan Mexico embraced sectors including aerospace, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and clean energy. But one of his most useful observations concerned the way investment corridors form in real life. Mr Delgado described an Indian automotive company from Chennai investing in Aguascalientes, followed by others through networks and shared experience. One company crosses. Another watches. A third follows. Geography begins to acquire a business community.

PERU

Mr José Galvez Agurto, Senior Trade, Tourism and Investment Commissioner at the Commercial Office of Peru, reached back to Caral and the Indus Valley, two ancient civilisational traditions, before moving decisively into the present. Mining and agriculture were central to Peru’s proposition, but the field extended into renewable energy, fintech, data centres, medical services and elderly care. India and Peru, he noted, were negotiating a trade agreement. Here again, the larger lesson surfaced: countries habitually reduced to one or two familiar commodities often contained a much wider investment map than Indian business had yet explored.

VENEZUELA

Mr Juan Goldnick, Minister Counsellor, Embassy of Venezuela, placed energy at the centre of his country’s proposition, alongside gold, nickel, iron, coal and more than 40 strategic minerals. His invitation was wonderfully uncomplicated: “Let’s go to work together.” There was something refreshing in the economy of the line. After hours of discussion about distance, supply chains, market access and untapped potential, Mr Goldnick reduced the proposition to its practical core. At some point, opportunity has to leave the podium.

PARAGUAY

H.E. Fleming Raul Duarte Ramos, Ambassador of Paraguay to India, called his country “the best kept secret in the region”. Paraguay’s domestic market was limited, he acknowledged, but its position within MERCOSUR, its river systems, hydropower, the Itaipu complex and the emerging Bioceanic Corridor gave it a wider commercial logic. Agribusiness, the Maquila regime, investment incentives and export-oriented manufacturing formed part of the offer. His appeal returned to one of the day’s persistent themes: visit, understand, meet people, learn how the country works. A market cannot remain mysterious to companies willing to enter it.

Ambassador Duarte also underlined that Paraguay should be viewed not merely as a market of seven million people, but as a strategic production and logistics platform serving the wider Mercosur region. With preferential access to neighbouring economies, a simple tax regime, competitive labour costs and growing manufacturing capabilities, he said Paraguay offers Indian companies an efficient gateway to South America. He encouraged businesses to look beyond immediate trade opportunities and consider long-term investments that could serve multiple regional markets.

BRAZIL

Then Brazil arrived with a number that changed the temperature.

Mr Bruno Berrettini Campones do Brasil, Head of the Political Section at the Embassy of Brazil, told the gathering that since H.E. Kenneth Félix Haczynski da Nóbrega, Ambassador of Brazil, arrived in India in mid-2023, there had been more than 100 business missions from Brazil to India.

“100 plus and counting.”

If India still regarded Latin America as distant, Latin America was not necessarily returning the favour.

Brazil’s presentation carried the force of momentum already under way. Bilateral trade had reached around US$15 billion in the last fiscal year, Mr Berrettini said, while investment moved in both directions. Tata Consultancy Services had a substantial presence in Brazil; Bajaj Auto had established a plant in Amazonas; Mahindra was expanding in Rio Grande do Sul. In India, Embraer’s relationships extended across civil aviation and defence possibilities, while WEG had a manufacturing presence in Tamil Nadu.

Mr Berrettini also supplied one of the day’s most revealing moments of scale. Brazil, he noted, had a population of around 210 million, only to encounter Indians pointing out that Uttar Pradesh alone had roughly 250 million. “Oh my God,” he recalled. “That’s how we come to understand the dimensions of India.” The anecdote worked because unfamiliarity was plainly reciprocal. India needed to understand the region in its differences; Latin America, too, was still discovering the scale and complexity of India.

By late afternoon, no single phrase such as “India-Latin America relations” could comfortably contain what had appeared on stage. Argentina had spoken through food, energy and mining security. Cuba through biotechnology and co-research. Jamaica through logistics, tourism and human connection. Guatemala through Central America’s strategic possibilities. Panama through gateways. Chile through innovation and the missing bridge. The Dominican Republic through nearshoring. Mexico through manufacturing and continental access. Peru through investment architecture. Venezuela through energy and minerals. Paraguay through hydropower and regional reach. Brazil through movement already under way.

That diversity was precisely Amb. Guani’s point. The region could not be understood as a blur.

INDUSTRY VOICES

Nor were the diplomats presenting into a vacuum. The scale of the gap was exercising Indian business and advisory voices in the room. Mr Jayant Borkar of VAlterra Corporate Advisors LLP contrasted India’s roughly US$50 billion trade with the region with China’s approximately US$500 billion, arguing that stronger connectivity could transform the equation. Initiatives combining sustained interaction with direct B2G engagement, he said, could act as a catalyst for Indian corporates and businesses from Latin America and the Caribbean.

The curiosity was also visible at company level. Mr Pranjay Gupta Desai of Bengaluru-based Veridia World, an exporter of Indian-manufactured engineered components for oil and gas valves, pipelines and automotive applications, had come to network and understand what the region’s 33 countries could offer.

Mr Ankit Bhusha, already working with African markets in engineering goods and borehole-drilling machinery, was now looking towards what he called the “enormous” opportunity in Latin America. These were not grand geopolitical declarations. That was precisely their value. They showed Indian businesses trying to convert a distant region into a set of actual markets.

Collectively, the country presentations underscored the remarkable diversity of opportunities across Latin America and the Caribbean. While each nation highlighted its own comparative strengths, a common message emerged throughout the afternoon: the region should not be viewed as distant or unfamiliar, but as a long-term partner offering opportunities in manufacturing, agribusiness, mining, renewable energy, logistics, tourism, digital services and critical minerals.

ENGINE ROOM

Then the speeches ended.

And LAC FIRST entered its engine room.

The Business-to-Government session moved Ambassadors, Embassy representatives and businesses into direct conversation. If the auditorium had been the stage, this was where diplomacy acquired its most practical expression. Questions narrowed. Exporters discussed certification. Companies explored regulatory pathways. Businesses interested in food, mining, logistics, renewable energy, technology, pharmaceuticals or manufacturing could move from a country presentation towards the people who understood the route into the market.

Business cards crossed tables. Maps were unfolded. Investment brochures were annotated. Follow-up meetings were discussed.

This mattered because potential is one of the most durable words in international relations. It can survive for decades without producing a factory, a shipment or a partnership. It appears in speeches, enters communiqués and returns cheerfully at the next conference.

The engine room was an attempt to make potential uncomfortable.

It also exposed a deeper truth about distance. Ports matter. Air routes matter. Shipping lines, tariffs, trade agreements and finance matter. But information is infrastructure too. Knowing whom to call matters. Understanding that Panama may be more valuable as a gateway than as a final market matters. Recognising that Jamaica’s small population does not define its logistical reach matters. Knowing that Paraguay’s landlocked position coexists with river access, hydropower and a Bioceanic Corridor matters. Seeing Chile beyond walnuts, Cuba beyond political memory, Guatemala beyond unfamiliarity and Argentina beyond the familiar vocabulary of agriculture matters.

There is a particular illusion that often shapes engagement with distant markets: the belief that business begins after perfect conditions arrive. After direct flights. After better shipping. After a trade agreement. After greater awareness. After somebody else enters first. After the unfamiliar becomes safe.

But markets rarely wait politely for latecomers.

Indian companies already operating across the region did not wait for the oceans to narrow. Nor did more than 100 Brazilian missions need India to become geographically closer before coming. Distance is real, but it can become an alibi. A country may be 15,000 kilometres away and commercially reachable; another may be nearer and remain psychologically invisible.

The map measures the first problem. It cannot measure the second.

That was why Mr Loyola’s handful of raised hands mattered. They were not an indictment of the room. They revealed the scale of territory still to be explored between India’s global ambition and its familiarity with a region increasingly relevant to food security, energy security, critical minerals, resilient supply chains, manufacturing, technology and access to wider markets.

And perhaps that is where LAC FIRST found its sharpest meaning. Not in pretending that geography had disappeared, and not in celebrating potential for its own sake, but in confronting the habits that allow distance to become destiny.

As delegates moved from the auditorium towards direct meetings, the grand phrase “India-LAC partnership” faced its smallest and most consequential test.

Who is the regulator? Where is the project? Can you introduce us? What is the next step? When do we meet again? The speeches had described the map. The engine room asked who was prepared to cross it.

Yet perhaps the conference’s most visible achievement lay not on the stage but in the auditorium itself. It was filled with exporters, entrepreneurs, manufacturers and business leaders who had come to understand a region that has long remained underexplored by Indian enterprise. As the sessions unfolded, presentations gave way to conversations, conversations to contacts, and contacts to possibilities. By the close of the conference, many delegates were no longer looking at Latin America and the Caribbean as distant markets across the Atlantic, but as destinations worthy of serious commercial engagement.

LAC FIRST has created momentum. Subsequent editions will build on it, no doubt. Distance and geography may at first seem daunting, but there are those who believe, rather firmly, that a ship in harbour is safe, but that is not where a ship is meant to be. Pablo Neruda wrote, “You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot stop spring from coming.” Perhaps that was the spirit that rose most powerfully from this conference: oceans may separate regions, habits may delay discovery, but neither distance nor hesitation can indefinitely hold back an idea whose time has come.