The visit is taking place in the year when India and Argentina are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic ties
Argentina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship Diana Mondino arrived in India on Saturday on a five-day visit.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, during her October 5-9 visit, the Argentina’s Foreign Minister will meet her Indian counterpart Dr S Jaishankar and co-chair the 7th India-Argentina Joint Commission Meeting in New Delhi.

She will also meet other Ministers of the Indian government including Commerce and Industry, Agriculture, Petroleum and Natural Gas and Consumer Affairs, the MEA said.

Argentina Foreign Minister Mondino is accompanied by a trade delegation and would participate in a business interaction being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

She will also have an interaction with the think tank - Observer Research Foundation.

The visit will not only provide an opportunity to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations but also to discuss ways to further deepen and widen India-Argentina strategic partnership.

Enjoying warm and friendly relations with India, Argentina held 7th round of Foreign Office Consultations in Buenos Aires on September 13.

Both sides engaged in comprehensive discussions covering the entire gamut of their relationship. Besides political, trade and economic relations, the two delegations reviewed other key areas of cooperation including Healthcare and Pharma, Energy, Mining, Defence, Railways, Nuclear, Space, Agriculture, culture, and Consular issues.

The two sides also exchanged views on various regional and global issues of common interest.

Both sides agreed to enhance the exchange of high-level visits.

Economic and commercial relations

 India-Argentina bilateral trade more than doubled in 3 years from 2019 to 2022, peaking at USD 6.4 billion in 2022.

In 2021 and 2022 India was Argentina’s 4th largest trading partner. Argentina is one of the prime suppliers of edible oils especially soybean oil to India.

However, owing to the severe drought in Argentina, compounded by resultant scarcity of forex, India-Argentina bilateral trade faced strong headwinds in 2023 and settled at $3.9 billion in 2023, a deceleration of 39%. It is expected to bounce back with a favourable economic and weather outlook.

Cultural relations

India and Argentina share strong cultural relations with wide acceptance of Indian culture, yoga, meditation, philosophy, spiritualism, dance, and music among people in Argentina.  

Indian organizations such as Art of Living, Brahma Kumaris, RamaKrishna Mission, Sivananda Yoga and ISKCON among others have extraordinary followings.

All ten editions of International Day of Yoga (IDY) have seen a large scale and enthusiastic participation in Buenos Aires as well as in provinces.

 The 10th IDY celebrations on June 21, 2024 were held at La Rural on the theme of Yoga for Self and Society.

 The event was immensely successful witnessing participation of more than 12,000 people despite incessant rain and inclement weather.

In 2018, an event titled ‘Yoga for Peace’ organized by Art of Living was attended by PM Modi with participation of over 4000 people and 600 people performing Yoga simultaneously.

Indian community

There are around 2600 NRIs / PIOs in Argentina. Majority of them live in the capital city of Buenos Aires.

A large number of earlier migrants who have been in Argentina for 3-4 generations are in the provinces of Salta and Jujuy.

There are two Gurudwaras in Greater Buenos Aires and one in Rosario de la Frontera, Salta province.