India, Feb. 23 -- When Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva first announced plans to travel to India last year amid trade tensions with the US, he had emphasised the need to defend multilateralism and forge greater economic integration between the two countries. At the talks between Lula and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Saturday, the two sides agreed to raise the bilateral trade target to $30 billion by 2030, reflecting a keenness to build on the recent momentum in commercial ties, including a 25%-rise in trade in 2025 over the previous year, against the backdrop of uncertainty injected in trade by the US's tariff policies. This also signals India's interest in new markets in Latin America, which was not a focus area for New Delhi in recent decades. Both India and Brazil were hit with some of the highest US tariffs, and this spurred their efforts at forums such as Brics and the G20 to build a more equitable new order. The agreements concluded by the two sides on rare earths and mining - vital to India's energy transition and infrastructure goals - is a significant bet for India to overcome China's grip on the supply and processing of rare earths and critical minerals and its vulnerability to the weaponisation of supply chains by Beijing. Brazil is estimated to hold the one of the largest reserves of rare earths after China and could emerge as a key source of these commodities, especially if the two sides can speedily attract investments to the sector. Brazil too stands to gain from India's experience in defence manufacturing, space and digitalisation. From a symbolic standpoint, this is a deepening of South-South cooperation and an affirmation of collaboration in strategic sectors by two countries with a significant stake in giving voice to the issues of the Global South....