Mumbai: The India-Brazil-South Africa grouping
has outlined a comprehensive agenda of cooperation,
including institutional and business linkages, in energy,
trade, transportation and other sectors.
The
first-ever summit of the three nations in the Brazilian
capital Brasilia said they would establish replicable
and scaleable projects in other developing countries
as part of South-South cooperation to alleviate poverty
and hunger.
Brazil
and South Africa also came out in support of India''s
efforts to get nuclear powers to remove obstacles to
it securing civil nuclear energy.
In
a joint declaration issued at the end of the first IBSA
summit, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian
president Liuz Inacio Lula da Silva and South African
President Thabo Mbeki called for increased cooperation
in sustainable development and science and technology.
Addressing
a meeting of heads of government with CEOs from the
three countries, Manmohan Singh said discussions are
underway for a possible trade arrangement that would
link India with the Latam trade block MERCOSUR and the
Southern African Customs Union.
"We
expect this would create a large and expanding economic
space that would allow the utilisation of synergies
in trade and technology," he said.
The
three nations should consider ways of linkages among
themselves that could lead to India becoming a "hub
to Asia, Brazil an entry point to Latin America and
South Africa a springboard for Africa," Manmohan
said.
"We
should expand the idea of IBSA from a project of three
governments to one involving more intensively the peoples
of our three countries. This would require a greater
emphasis on people to people contact, on cultural and
educational exchanges and on the promotion of trade
and tourism amongst our three countries," he said.
The
summit also discussed issues like the need for concerted
fight against the scourge of terrorism, UN reforms,
especially on the question of expansion of the Security
Council and universal nuclear disarmament.
The
summit marks the beginning of a more intense political
and economic
dialogue among three biggest democracies of three different
continents and this is expected to impact on the business
and trade opportunities beyond their grouping.
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