The Hindu : Three is company

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003

Opinion

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Three is company

By K.K. Katyal

The India, Brazil and South Africa Dialogue Forum will have greater relevance for the three countries, and others in the developing category, than some of the older organisations like the Commonwealth or the G-15.

ON THE face of it, a trilateral cooperation arrangement between India, Brazil and South Africa looks far-fetched. Brazil is on the other side of the globe; South Africa is not in India's vicinity either. Distance, if nothing else, should be a major hurdle. Yet, to the surprise of many in the world community, the three nations have come close to one another to work for clearly defined goals. Yes, their collective action is to cover trade, economic matters and science and technology but it also is to deal with social justice, steps to alleviate poverty and achieve freedom from hunger and the most important, to remove distortions in the current world order and to try to set right the terms of trade, consciously rigged against the developing world. How to safeguard their societies against the pernicious effects of globalisation and to resist the shifting of the focus away from development is to be another central point of their efforts. Those who have seen the squalor and poverty in the suburbs of Rio or Durban or in the bastis near Delhi would wonder why such efforts had not been contemplated earlier and why this ugly reality had not attracted the desired attention.

During a visit to Brazil in January 1996, I heard general talk by officials and others on the possibilities of enhanced cooperation with India via South Africa. What encouraged them in that belief was the opening up of South Africa after the end of the apartheid regime? There was a sudden recognition of its utility both as a transit point and for warehousing facilities. That was on the eve of the then Brazilian President, Fernando Cordoso's visit to India (he was the chief guest at the Republic Day parade that year), which became an occasion for affirming the desire for strengthening bilateral ties, with the change in South Africa seen as a good augury. These ideas continued to be repeated from time to time since then but there was no evidence of concrete steps, especially at the trilateral level. The situation changed suddenly dramatically after a former metal worker, who headed Latin America's biggest left-wing party, Luiz Inacio da Silva, became Brazil's President. His passion and commitment triggered interest in the trilateral moves, with stress on social programmes.

Consider the following sequence — and the speed with which the three countries advanced towards a new partnership will be clear. The Lula presidency was inaugurated in Brasilia on January 1 this year. Despite his many pre-occupations that day, the new President spoke to his counterpart from South Africa, Thabo M. Mbeki, who was among the foreign dignitaries present there, about the urgency of a grouping of their two countries and India. President Mbeki promised to convey the message to India. In February, at the Non-Aligned summit in Kuala Lumpur, the South African Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dalmin-Zuma, spoke to her opposite number from India, Yashwant Sinha, about it. India responded enthusiastically, with Mr. Sinha saying that he was scheduled to visit Brasila in June and that the two of them and their colleague from Brazil, Celso Amorim, could meet to work out details. In the meanwhile, the process of consultations began in right earnest.

The heads of the three countries, the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, and the Presidents of South Africa and Brazil, who attended the G-8 summit in Evian, France, on May 31 discussed the issue of trilateral cooperation among themselves and, with it, the move received major boost. The Brasilia meeting of the three Foreign Ministers on June 6, and their declaration, turned out to be the first major landmark, giving a concrete shape to the ideas mooted earlier.

"This was a pioneer meeting of the three countries with vibrant democracies from three regions of the developing world, active on a global scale, with the aim of examining themes on the international agenda and those of mutual interest," said the declaration. It drew attention to the "importance and necessity of a process of a dialogue among the developing nations and countries" that had emerged in the past few years. The group was to be called "India, Brazil and South Africa Dialogue Forum" (IBSA) and a Trilateral Joint Commission was set up to coordinate their positions on issues of mutual interest. The first meeting of the Commission is to be held in New Delhi in early March next year. In September, the three heads and the three Foreign Ministers held separate meetings in Yew York on the occasion of the U.N. General Assembly session. Trilateral cooperation was also a major subject of discussions during the trip here of the South African President last month — and is certain to figure during the Lula visit here in January next year (he will be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade). In the brief span of eight months, the three heads would have met thrice, with Foreign Ministers meeting five times. Notable indeed, was the frequency of their contacts and the intensity of their interaction.

The initiative taken by the three countries (along with China) in organising G-20 at Cancun was no freak phenomenon. It was the direct result of the trilateral processes set in motion earlier. The Brasilas Declaration spoke of their resolve to coordinate their efforts for the "reversal of protectionist policies and trade-distorting practices by improving the rules of the multilateral trade system". The representatives of the three (along with China and Argentina) are currently engaged in discussion on the post-Cancun situation. Simultaneously, the three are negotiating with the UNDP for the establishment of a fund to finance projects in social areas in their countries, which could be replicated in the rest of the developing world later. Brazil has already pledged one million dollars to this fund. Another concrete step — on June 18, India and Brazil signed a framework agreement on preferential trade and free trade arrangement, to be extended to the entire Mercosur grouping (of four Latin American countries). Similar agreement between India and South Africa (and other members of the Southern Africa Customs Union) is being finalised now.

In an address during his stay in New Delhi, Mr. Mbeki explained that the trilateral Dialogue Forum was meant to enable the three countries to address issues of global concern — socio-economic development, technology and global governance. "We have a duty", he said, "to ourselves and to the next generations to combine our strengths so that, through our actions, we would ensure that we shall no longer be defined as the wretched of the earth".

Both the Brasilia Declaration and the statement issued after the meeting of the three Foreign Ministers in New York focussed on the importance of U.N. reforms and expansion of the Security Council — in the first case, "they agreed to combine efforts in order to enhance the effectiveness of the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council" and in the second, "underlined the need to strengthen multilateralism, and, in this regard, agreed to cooperate among themselves and with the Secretary General to further U.N. reforms". This point was not amplified. Each of the three countries have staked their claim to permanent membership of the Security Council, and any reference to their individual ambitions could evoke the ire of their neighbours.

The IBSA, it is clear, will have greater utility and relevance to the needs of the three countries — and, indeed of others in the developing category — than some of the older organisations like the Commonwealth (of the former British colonies) and G-15. The second, supposed to be a core group of the non-aligned, is virtually defunct.

The contemporary relevance of IBSA is established by the Brasilia Declaration — a comprehensive document dealing with issues with a close bearing to the problems and concerns of the poor nations. Witness for instance its reference to the effects of globalisation. It welcomed the expansion of economic growth, employment and social development in several developing countries as a result of free movement of trade, capital and technology, but expressed concern that large parts of the world had not benefited from globalisation. It committed the three nations to the pursuit of policies, programmes and initiatives in different international forums, to make the diverse processes of globalisation inclusive, integrative, humane and equitable.

Then there was the concern over the increased vulnerability of developing countries to fluctuations of global prices of commodities. And stress on importance of a predictable, rule-based and transparent international trading system.

IBSA is a success story of Indian diplomacy, with results achieved through quiet efforts in sharp contrast to cases of flashy approach and high-profile postures yielding limited dividends.

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