IBSA  TRILATERAL MINISTERIAL MEETING

Speech by Shri Anand Sharma, Hon'ble Minister of State for External Affairs

30 March, 2006

Foreign Minister Amorim

Foreign Minister Zuma,

Senior Officials, Ladies and Gentlemen,

          We meet today to reiterate our friendship with our closest friends Brazil and South Africa.  Also, to prepare for the forthcoming Summit Meeting of Heads of State and Government of our countries. 

For me, personally, this visit to Rio de Janeiro, undoubtedly one of the world’s most beautiful cities, assumes special significance.  The first official engagement I undertook on assuming office two months ago was to Brazil and to Rio.  The breath-taking beauty of the city, your gracious hospitality and the excellent arrangements that have been made provide the perfect setting for the important tasks that we have set out to achieve.

          Before I came to Rio for this visit, our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh asked me to convey to you and, through you, to Presidents Lula and Mbeki that he is not only looking forward to visit Brazil for the IBSA Summit in September but that we should spare no effort to ensure that our preparations for the Summit make it a truly momentous event in the consolidation and reinvigoration of IBSA.  This trilateral framework could not only help tap the synergies available in our three countries but serve as a model for South-South Cooperation.

          We have identified several sectors for cooperation under the framework of the IBSA Trilateral Commission.  I believe that our Focal Points, as well as the Working Groups that have met, have had fruitful discussions on the details of cooperative activities.  I will, therefore, confine my remarks to some of those sectors that are particularly relevant to our three countries and to cooperation amongst ourselves.

          Our three countries attach the highest importance to the sector of agriculture because the livelihood and economic well being of the majority of our populations depends on how our agriculture fares.  The meeting of our Agriculture Ministers in Rome last November and the Meeting of Senior Officials in New Delhi in January this year have laid the basis for the finalization of an MOU on Trilateral cooperation.  We look forward to this being concluded, in a time-bound manner at the earliest so that it can be operationalized.

          Energy is another area in which we need to strengthen collaborative action.  Our leaders had, at their meeting in New York in September last year, specifically directed us to focus on alternative sources of energy.  Both Brazil and South Africa have extremely rich and relevant expertise that could be of benefit to all three countries.  South Africa is a world leader in technology for converting coal into liquid fuel.  Brazil, on the other hand, has recorded notable achievements in manufacturing ethanol from sugarcane.  We, in India, have inter alia focused on bio-fuel and solar energy.  I am happy that the Working Group on Energy has held useful discussions, as this is one are in which cooperation could become a badge of pride for our young grouping.

          As India Continues to grow at around 8%, and we expect the rate of growth to rise, our energy needs will also grow enormously.  It is important that we have access to clean and eco-friendly fuel and technologies.  We note with appreciation the understanding of India’s energy needs by our friends, including in IBSA.

          I have long felt, and I now realize this sentiment is shared, that the biggest barrier that we need to overcome is the mental barrier borne of distance.  It follows, therefore, that trade, people to people contacts and various forms of cooperation among our three countries depend to a large extent on our ability to put in place effective transportation linkages.  We need to immediately operationalise the trilateral MOU on air services which has been concluded.  We need to augment the air services links between Indian, South Africa and Brazil.  It is equally imperative that we finalize the draft agreement on maritime transport.  The absence of efficient and economical shipping links is an important reason for the level of Intra-IBSA trade.  We need to realize that this is a typical chicken and egg situation and find innovative solutions to overcome this significant constraint.

We should organize an IBSA media Workshop so that the press in our three countries spreads the IBSA message.  India would be willing to take the lead. 

We are happy with the progress so far that has been recorded with regard to enhancing economic engagement within the IBSA framework.  All three countries are, understandably, very enthusiastic about the potential that exists.  There is agreement to address various trade facilitation issues, including of harmonization of conformity assessment standards and procedures and of technical barriers to trade. 

We have also agreed to explore the modalities for the trade negotiating process between India, MERCOSUR and SACU.  It would, we feel, be important to provide further momentum to the ongoing discussions so that we can have a specific set of deliberations by the time our Leaders meet at the IBSA Summit.

          I would also like to suggest that we look at new sectors for cooperation, such as those of finance and law.  We could, for example, consider setting standards for foreign direct investment among IBSA countries to cover investment promotion, investment liberalization and dispute settlement.  There could also be cooperation among our stock exchanges.  In this area, there is much that India could bring to the table given the highly technology-driven frameworks of our stock exchanges.  Preliminary discussions on these subjects could, if it is agreed, be carried out within the Working Group on Trade.  A view could subsequently be taken on whether there would be a need to establish a separate working group.

          It is our firm belief that our collective efforts can not only result in doubling the quantum of our trade from the present 6 billion to 12 billion US dollars in the short term, say by April 2008 but enhance and give a significant boost to the promotion of people to people contacts and tourism. 

We have hosted familiarization trips for a number of African tour operators and will shortly be hosting tour operators from Brazil in a Latin American Tour Operator Workshop.  We are also planning to host an IBSA Tour Operators’ Conference later in the year.

          When IBSA was initiated, it was limited to political dialogue between the three Foreign Offices, Subsequently, various sectoral Ministries and technical experts from our three governments also became involved.  We are extremely pleased that, with the IBSA Seminar on “Economic Development with Social Equity” held in Rio last August, we have broadened the contact base to also include Parliamentarians, civil society and academia.  Our artistic community is excited about the IBSA Music and Dance Festival that would be hosted by Brazil later this year.  This promises to be a colourful extravaganza that would bring together the extremely varied artistic expressions of our three culturally rich and diverse countries.  These initiatives would, we are hopeful, take IBSA to the level of peoples and spread its reality among our three countries.

          May I conclude by once again thanking Foreign Minister Amorim for hosting this IBSA Trilateral Commission.  I have no doubt, that our deliberations and those of our officials will succeed in placing IBSA on a sound footing and prepare it for  ‘take off’ for further mutual cooperation.

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