Since the late 1990s, both India and Peru have turned their focus to each others’ regions. New commercial exchanges have filled some gaps in the bilateral, but strategic elements – climate change, multilateral fora, advanced research – must be incorporated if both countries are to benefit from each other.
A distance of 17,789 kilometres separates Kolkata in India from Arequipa, Peru’s second-largest city, and few in either place know of the existence of the other. Yet, commonalities could make them twins. Both have a rich literary culture and embedded intelligentsia; they are the birthplace of Rabindranath Tagore and Mario Vargas Llosa respectively, the only Nobel laureates in literature from either country. Many colourful auto rickshaws in Kolkata and mototaxis in Arequipa are made by the same company – Bajaj.