India’s global rise is not matched by the number of diplomats it has, Argentine Ambassador Mariano A. Caucino said on Thursday. Speaking at the Observer Research Foundation’s (ORF) Diplomat Diaries series in the national Capital, he said India and Argentina have almost the same number of diplomats, though India’s population is nearly 30 times larger.
“India has almost 1.5 billion people, and Argentina has less than 50 million. Yet we have the same number of diplomats,” Caucino said at the Latin America Roundtable held at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre. “I heard that India is recruiting many new diplomats this year. That is good news,” he added.
The session was moderated by Professor Harsh V Pant of ORF. It featured Argentine Ambassador Caucino and Chilean Ambassador Juan Angulo. Both envoys spoke about their countries’ growing ties with India and the region’s changing role in global politics.
Ambassador Caucino said Latin American nations face a “paradox”. Politically, the region belongs to the Western Hemisphere. But economically, it is now more connected to Asia.
“Our trade partners are mostly in Asia. India is already among the top ten,” he said. “We share democratic values with the West, but our economic future lies in Asia,” he added. He said India’s economic growth has opened new areas of cooperation. “India is already the fifth-largest economy. It will soon be the third. Many Indian companies are investing in Argentina’s lithium and food sectors,” he said. But he warned against depending only on natural resources. “Countries develop when they add value and invest in technology,” he said.
Chilean Ambassador Juan Angulo said small economies like Chile must stay flexible. “We are takers of global rules, not makers,” he said. “We cannot choose sides in big power rivalries. We must adapt,” Angulo remarked. He further said Chile is trying to add value to its exports and use technology to improve productivity. “We don’t want to export raw rocks of lithium. We want to be part of the battery value chain,” he said. “In agriculture, we use artificial intelligence for packing and shipping. Innovation is the only way to compete,” he added.
Angulo said Latin America remains a “zone of peace” but faces internal challenges. “There are no wars between our countries. But we have problems like crime, drugs, and weak institutions,” he said. “People are also losing faith in democracy because it is not meeting their needs.
Caucino agreed that Latin America’s political values remain democratic but said the region must do more to turn economic links into opportunities. “With India, our economies are complementary, not competitive,” he said. The envoys said India’s limited diplomatic presence makes it harder to engage with faraway regions like Latin America.
Many Indian missions in the region cover multiple countries. Ambassador Angulo summed it up: “The distance is large, but the opportunities are larger.”
