IBSA on the 10th anniversary of the Brasilia Decleration

Franis A. Kornegay – SABC, 12/15/2012

Franics Korenegay was a Public Policy Scholar for the Africa Program at the Wilson Center from June-September 2012

Last year, South Africa hosted the 5th summit of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Trilateral Dialogue Forum. In 2013 it is India’s turn. This will mark the 10th anniversary of the Brasilia Declaration that led to the trilateral build up toward the summits of heads-of-state of the three countries that have occurred over the last several years. Meanwhile, all three countries have become members of BRICS, the symbolic vanguard among emerging powers leading the non-Western ‘Rest’ through a transition of relative rise amid Western relative decline.

BRICS has garnered considerably more attention than IBSA and is taken much more seriously as a revisionist actor given the great power status of Russia and China compared to the ‘middle power’ profiles of India, Brazil and South Africa. Russia may be something of a ‘has been’ as the former superpower competitor of the US when it was the Soviet Union. But it remains at least a regionalized great power nonetheless. China on the other hand has effectively emerged.

Given perceptions of Sino-Russia as strategic competitors of ‘lone superpower’ America, BRICS carries a weight that middle power IBSA will never carry. And, it has been gaining momentum to a point where former Indian envoy Rajiv Bhatia, director-general of the Indian Council on World Affairs was moved recently to question what he interprets as IBSA’s relevance.

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India, Brazil, SAfrica end summit, pledge to boost trade

AFP/Dawn.com, 10/19/2011

An hand out picture shows Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (L), South African Presidnt Jacob Zuma (C) and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh posing during a summit gathering leaders of the emerging economies of India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA), dominated by the global economic crisis amid questions over the group's relevance on October 18, 2011 in Pretoria. -AFP Photo

Pretoria: Brazil, India and South Africa on Tuesday agreed to push for UN reform, but their summit talks here focused more on trade and worry about the global financial crisis than on diplomatic unity.

“We continue to collaborate closely in areas such as the G20, BRICS, WTO and G77 plus China regarding economic and financial issues,” said Zuma at the end of the summit attended by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

“We also agreed on the need for the reform of the United Nations, including the UN Security Council, to make it more representative and effective,” he added.

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Singh sees India, Brazil, South Africa coordination at G-20

Patrick McGroarty – Wall Street Journal, 10/18/2011

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has embarked on a three-day visit to Pretoria to attend the trilateral India-Brazil-South Africa Summit. Credit: http://www.thehindu.com

Brazil, India and South Africa should negotiate as a block at the Group of 20 meeting of leading nations in Paris next month, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday.

“We should coordinate our positions in the run-up to the G-20 summit in France to make sure the priorities of the developing economies are adequately reflected,” Mr. Singh said at the outset of meetings here with South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma and Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff. Mr. Singh also urged European leaders to act decisively to calm financial markets uncertainty that he said is hurting developing countries.

“We hope that effective and early steps will be taken by Europe and other advanced economies to calm the capital and financial markets and prevent the global economy from slipping into a double-dip recession,” Mr. Singh said.

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Brazil revs up South-South cooperation

Thalif Deen – IPS, 08/19/2011

As one of the world’s emerging economic powerhouses, Brazil is vigourously pursuing one of the key economic objectives on the U.N.’s development agenda: South-South Cooperation.

The Brazilian Cooperation Agency is currently participating in scores of economic projects, mostly in the agricultural sector, in over 80 developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean.

The projects range from livestock and fisheries to horticulture and food production.

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Brazil Institute Publication: “Emerging Powers: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) and the Future of South-South Cooperation”

Due to the current trends of political and economic restructuring, South-South cooperation is expected to play an increasingly important role in the post-recession world. India, Brazil, and South Africa (IBSA) established a dialogue forum to increase multilateral collaboration on a number of issues, especially those relating to development.

Based on a half-day conference on IBSA, the Brazil Institute’s new Special Report, “Emerging Powers: India, Brazil and South Africa (IBSA) and the Future of South-South Cooperation,” reveals two key themes: current accomplishments in enhancing global governance, economic relations, and foreign policy strategies; and the potential to improve regional security in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The conference panelists questioned whether IBSA could offer permanent solutions to multilateral security efforts given the diversity both within the countries and within the regions.

Click here to download the report.

Click here to watch the conference.