About

IBSA is a trilateral, developmental initiative between India, Brazil and South Africa to promote South-South cooperation and exchange.

In the aftermath of discussions between the Heads of State of the IBSA countries at the G-8 meeting in Evian in 2003, and following ongoing trilateral consultations, the Foreign Ministers of the respective countries met in Brasilia on 6 June, 2003.

At this meeting between Ministers Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma from South Africa, Celso Amorim from Brazil and Yashwant Sinha from India, the launch of the IBSA Dialogue Forum was formalized through the adoption of the "Brasilia Declaration". This document gives priority to social inclusion and equity, food security, health, welfare, employment, education, human rights and environmental sustainability. It also stresses the importance of sharing knowledge and experience on the fight against poverty, hunger and disease..

The guiding principles of the agreement are to promote South-South cooperation and dialogue and reach common positions on issues of international relevance; explore opportunities for trade and investment, promote poverty alleviation and social development on a global scale, the exchange of information, technology and skills, and to transform the individual competitive potential into collective synergy.

IBSA has become an institutional instrument to promote a more fruitful coordination on global issues between three large multicultural and multiracial democracies in Asia, South America and Africa. Furthermore, has contributed to strengthening trilateral cooperation in various sectors. With common goals and objectives and a coherent agenda, this trilateral initiative proposes a tangible plan to discuss essential questions in an increasingly integrated developing world.

The IBSA Dialogue Forum has regular consultations at Senior Official (Focal Point), Ministerial (Trilateral Joint Commission) and Heads of State ( Summit) levels, but also facilitates interaction amongst academics, business and other members of civil society. The outputs of the Forum will be reported to the Summit of Heads of State, making the event an extraordinary opportunity to engage in the policy making debate of the global South.  Around 30 distinguished guests will come from India and South Africa and we expect a total of 120 selected participants from all three countries.

Since the inauguration of IBSA, there has been an increasing interest in academic partnership between the three countries. As a consequence, several joint projects have emerged in various academic areas. The academic forums held in 2006 in Brazil, 2007 in South Africa and 2008 in India were important tools for discussing the IBSA process. The constant exchange of ideas among academics and scholars have been crucial in the development of an intellectual base to support common perspectives. Given of previous exchanges, we expect that this years´s discussions will foster insights into how to develop mechanisms for structured interaction between governments, developing the intellectual field can contribute to the processes of policy making in the three countries. There is a demand for building a network of academics and experts from Brazil, India and South Africa, in order to support common policies on development of the three countries and provide support to the South-South cooperation at a global level.

Visit the IBSA – Trilateral Official Website at: http://www.ibsa-trilateral.org/