Brasilia, September 14
The just-concluded first IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) Summit took forward the mantle of creating a fair and equitable world order as envisaged by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
During the summit, leaders of the three participating countries — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — deliberated at length various global issues and called for “strengthening the voice of developing countries and to contribute to global decisions that impact the populations of these countries”.
Rather than being confined only as a “shining example of South- South cooperation”, the IBSA has acquired more dimensions in its approach within the past few days. Its very first summit witnessed the three leaders discussing more urgent issues of international terrorism and reforms of international institutions. On the nuclear energy issue, the IBSA in its joint declaration stated it was “the inalienable right of all states to the peaceful application of nuclear energy, but it should be consistent with their international legal obligations”.
Expressing concern over lack of progress on the nuclear disarmament, the IBSA leaders emphasised that nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation were mutually reinforcing
processes that required continuous irreversible progress on both fronts.The three leaders called for a progressive elimination of nuclear weapons in “a comprehensive, universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable manner” just on the lines of various legally-binding instruments that led to the ban on chemical and biological weapons.
On the crisis plaguing the world over Iran’s ambition to acquire nuclear weapons, the IBSA called for a diplomatic resolution of the issue within the context of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
On the crucial Indo-US nuclear deal, India received support from both countries. The IBSA declaration stated that any “international civilian nuclear cooperation, under appropriate IAEA safeguards, among countries committed to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation objectives could be enhanced through acceptable forward-looking approaches, consistent with their respective national and international obligations”.
The IBSA expressed conviction to prevent “non-state actors or terrorists” from acquiring nuclear weapons.
The summit leaders urged the member nations of the United Nations to seriously work towards the expeditious finalisation of the text for a comprehensive convention on international terrorism.
They also deliberated on the urgent need for expanding the United Nations Security Council. To Dr Manmohan Singh’s call for no completion of UN reforms without the UNSC expansion, the two leaders gave unconditional support.
India and Brazil, along with Germany and Japan, as members of the Group of Four (G-4) are striving to get the permanent seat in the expanded UNSC.
The summit leaders also called for reform of the International Monetary Fund so as to reduce the “serious imbalance” in the voting power, currently skewed in favour of advanced economies.
