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India, Brazil, South Africa - the Power of
Three
Sunil Dang onboard with PM's
special aircraft
JOHANNESBURG : Brazil, India and South Africa will intensify their
campaign for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council when
their leaders meet in the South African capital, Pretoria today.
President Luiz Inácio da Silva of Brazil, President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will discuss U.N.
reforms and other issues of common interest at the second IBSA (India,
Brazil, South Africa) summit later this week.
All three countries are strong candidates to take up permanent seats on
an expanded Security Council, and appear certain to support each other's
efforts to represent their regions. This mutual endorsement will lend
considerable weight to their respective bids, but at the same time could
alienate them from potential supporters in their own regions.
IBSA was conceived in 2003 to counterbalance the powerful Group of Eight
alliance of industrialised countries and to promote South-South
cooperation. The three regional powers saw themselves as champions of
developing world causes, and they felt that by forging closer ties
between themselves they would be able to improve co-operation and trade
between their regions.
South Africa is the super power of the Southern African Customs Union
and the Southern African Development Community, Brazil is by far the
most influential member of the Mercosur trading bloc of South America,
and India has the largest economy in southern Asia.
Ahead of the summit, a number of related activities will take place in
Sandton, Johannesburg. These include meetings of 14 working groups, the
IBSA Woman's Initiative, IBSA Academics Forum and IBSA Business Forum,
as well as a seminar on technology transfer and a number of cultural
events.
IBSA leaders have tried to transform their political and economic
parallels into a basis for greater economic co-operation. They argue
that working together, they will have greater leverage when negotiating
with countries of the North for better trade conditions under the
auspices of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Since IBSA was formed in 2003, trade between the three member states has
increased considerably. As ambassador Jerry Matjila, head of the Asia
and Middle East section of the South African Department of Foreign
Affairs has remarked, "Trade figures are healthy and stand now at
between six and seven billion dollars."
In spite of Matjila's enthusiasm for the future of trilateral trade, a
reality check reveals that all three IBSA members still do by far most
of their business with industrialised countries.
In WTO trade figures for 2005, Brazil, India and South Africa list the
European Union as their number one destination for exports, and the
biggest source of imports. None of the IBSA countries features in the
lists of the top five trading partners of any of the other member
states.
Trilateral trade has grown impressively, but off a very low baseline.
The WTO says that from 2004 to 2006, Brazil's trade with India increased
by 170 percent and its trade with South Africa by 86 percent. |
