The Hindu : National : Manmohan Singh likely to visit Brazil

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 31, 2006

National

National

Manmohan Singh likely to visit Brazil

Amit Baruah

The first formal India-Brazil-South Africa forum meeting in September

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to visit Brazil in September for the first formal India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) forum meeting. Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma is in Rio de Janeiro for the third IBSA ministerial meeting to prepare the ground for the September summit.

So far, the IBSA, formed in 2003 in Brasilia, has been limited to formal interaction at the Foreign Ministers' level. But now, Mr. Sharma, along with his Brazilian and South African colleagues, Celso Amorim and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, will set the stage for a "stand alone" heads of government meeting.

An External Affairs Ministry release said ahead of the IBSA ministerial that the three Ministers would "review the growing trilateral cooperation and trade between India, Brazil and South Africa."

"The Ministers will exchange views and coordinate their positions on various global issues. The Ministerial meeting will prepare the ground for the IBSA summit to be held in Brazil in September 2006."

Core strategy

According to a South African Foreign Ministry statement, the forum had committed itself to the goal of developing countries successfully achieving the Millennium Development Goals as a core strategy in the international fight against underdevelopment, hunger and poverty.

In addition, the forum reconfirmed the importance of obtaining new and additional financial resources for fighting poverty and financing for development. It committed itself to working together to devise means to make the multilateral financial institutions genuinely open to participation by, and fully accountable to, the entire global constituency.

Ministers Dlamini Zuma, Celso Amorim and Anand Sharma will also discuss progress made in the existing working groups on trade and investment, information society, science and technology, education, energy, defence, tourism, agriculture, culture, transport, climate change, health and social development. Moreover, they will review the work of the IBSA Business Council since its launch last year.

Specifically, the three Ministers will focus on the comprehensive reform of the United Nations and all its institutions, the global fight against terrorism, peace and security, the impact ofglobalisation on the South, World Trade Organisation talks and sustainable development.

Given that India, Brazil and South Africa are key nations in Asia, South America and Africa, there is considerable interest in what the IBSA forum might be able to achieve both politically and economically. The IBSA countries have set a three-way trade target of $10 billion by 2007 with trade levels standing at $6 billion in 2005.

Already, India and Brazil have led an unsuccessful bid, along with Germany and Japan, to enter the U.N. Security Council as permanent members. South Africa, which was expected to join the G-4 as the African candidate for Council membership, however, opted to go along with the African Union on the issue.

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