The summit allowed the three countries to stress their points of view on the resumption of the WTO Doha Round of multilateral trade talks, on U.S. Security Council reform to incorporate permanent and rotating members from Latin America, Asia and Africa. The Indian Prime Minister said in the summit, “the usefulness of IBSA in the international community was clear in the leadership role that the three countries played in the Group of 20 (G20) developing nations in the WTO negotiations”

Brazil and India signed a multi-million dollar trade agreement to improve co-operation between the two major emerging economies. The areas of the deal involved technology and alternative energy source development. One of the central joint projects signed with Brazil was in developing ethanol fuel as an alternative to oil. Both agreed to create the Joint Committee on Bio-fuels. Brazil, which taps into its huge sugar cane production to make ethanol, announced that it would help India and South Africa produce the alternative fuel. “Indian companies from both public and private sector have evinced interest in exploring production opportunities in Brazil to meet the anticipated growth in ethanol use in India for both industrial as well as automobile use,” Said Dr Singh in the joint statement.

For the year 2005-06 Brazil’s exports to India soared to 1.1 billion dollars, a 75 percent increase over 2004, according to official Brazilian figures. Imports from India totaled 1.2 billion dollars, a 116 percent rise.

The Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, “Since then, we have worked intensely in various fronts to deepen our political and economic alliance, which we have now decided to elevate to strategic partnership status”. On similar lines the Indian Prime Minister Dr Singh said, “India and Brazil are large, pluralistic democracies. Our economic growth is broad-based and multifaceted. This provides opportunities for expansion of our bilateral trade and economic relations.”

On the issue of Civilian Nuclear Deal with USA both Brazil and South Africa assured India of full support though details were not available. This is again a very historic achievement

With a strong foundation a small beginning has been made for IBSA and if it works out successfully it can create huge opportunities not only for the nations concerned but can also change the face of global politics.

Dr Suvrokamal Dutta

(The writer is a renowned Foreign Affairs and Economic Expert)

Contact: Sk_dutta70@yahoo.com