IBSA summit hailed as emerging trinity

IBSA countries agree to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes

Delegates attending the India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) forum in Brasilia, Brazil have hailed the initiative as an emerging trinity in the new geography of international trade. IBSA was established in 2003 with a principal view of strengthening south-south co-operation.

It aims to increase trade flows between the three countries from the current $7 billion to $10 billion by next year.

Today, President Thabo Mbeki, Lula da Silva, his Brazilian counterpart, and Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister, will for the first time join representatives of their countries to endorse work done in the past three years.

Today's first meeting of the leaders of the three like-minded developing nations is seen as an important step to consolidate what many see as the world's most innovative process for building South-South relations. The IBSA Presidential Summit crowns almost four years of diplomacy and growing bonds between the three major democratic countries.

Co-operation programs
Created in 2003, the IBSA initiative has already born fruit in a co-ordinated negotiating position on international issues, most noticeably world trade, and is generating a host of co-operation programs on everything from IT and transport to agriculture and alternative energy.

The IBSA Dialogue Forum represents a unique economic formation comprising the world's leading emergent markets. It is seen by its architects as a powerful demonstration what has since come to be known as "The Power of Three" in the new global economic order.

Together, the IBSA members boast a market 1.3 billion people and an economy of $1.26 trillion. Anand Sharma, India's minister of state for external affairs, is optimistic that the set target of $10 billion by 2007 is within reach, given the potential offered by the different sectors of co-operation that form the backbone of this unique relationship.

Spirit of optimism
This spirit of optimism that has accompanied this trilateral initiative engulfed a meeting of the three countries' captains of industry held in Brasilia yesterday, ahead of today's presidential summit. Various speakers who took to the podium painted a picture of a "we can do it" situation being created by the IBSA forum.

Indian business authorities who represent the largest of the three economies, invited their South African and Brazilian counterparts to explore the massive opportunities their country has to offer. Saroj Kumar Poddar, the president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, oozes with enthusiasm when talking about his country's vast business opportunities.