TSHWANE (PRETORIA): India, Brazil and South Africa on Wednesday committed themselves to jointly pursue reforms in the United Nations and a poor-friendly conclusion to the Doha Round of trade talks.

Reaffirming their faith in multilaterism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva reiterated that the international system cannot be reordered meaningfully without a comprehensive reform of the U.N.

Releasing the Tshwane Declaration at the end of the Second IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) Summit here, they decided to out their full weight behind reforms in the U.N., central to which is the expansion of the Security Council. “Inter-governmental negotiations on the reform of the Council must begin forthwith,” noted the declaration. They reaffirmed the need for “concerted” efforts by the member-States towards revitalisation of the General Assembly.

“We will never give up because Security Council represents the political reality of 60 years ago which doesn’t exist today. We feel entitled to demand for ourselves the right to have better representation at the Council,” Mr. Lula said later at a news conference.

He pointed out that U.N. remained a silent spectator in Iraq because it no longer represented the current geo-political realities. “If credibility is lost, it is useless to have an agency like the U.N.,” he said, adding that he was against any country having veto rights.

On Doha Round, they noted that negotiations were entering a critical stage, and asserted that developed countries “must agree” to substantial and effective cuts in their trade distorting subsidies. Dr. Singh, Mr. Lula and Mr. Mbeki underscored the need for “meaningful and operable” differential treatment to developing countries.

“We have committed ourselves to working towards securing a balanced, equitable and successful outcome of the talks,” said Dr. Singh. “Very bluntly, I can say that we are not negotiating in a friend’s club. We are trying to build a consensus so that poor can win something. The rich have to make concessions after having been favoured for decades. This is nothing radical. We will reach an agreement but those in need should win,” noted Mr. Lula.

However, the three leaders felt the tri-nation grouping was yet to make substantial progress in improving trade among themselves. They urged the need to realise early a free trade arrangement between India, South Africa Currency Union (SACU) and Mercosur (Southern American Common Market). A trilateral ministerial meeting in this respect would be held next year.

Dr. Singh proposed better connectivity among the three countries but noted that the operations might initially not be commercially feasible.

“The IBSA countries have not yet exploited even 10 per cent of the potential in trade exchanges, economic investment and scientific and technical exchanges. That is why the IBSA [meetings] is very important. Governments get acquainted with one other and the countries’ structures get to be known. Business communities also get to know each other,” felt Mr. Lula.

The three countries also signed seven agreements aimed at enhancing trade and social development. The pacts, hoped Mr. Mbeki, would help the three countries respond to challenges of social inequity and economic deprivation among substantial sections of their population.

A substantial portion of the Tshwane Declaration was aimed at identifying commonalities in socio-economic areas and working out common approaches to mitigate deficiencies.

In this context, Dr. Singh noted the addition of two new working groups — 96 human settlement and environment and climate change. He also hoped that the trilateral trade target of $ 15 billions would be achieved before the target year of 2010.

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