Brasilia: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ended his three-day visit to Brazil for the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) summit with the satisfaction of having brought the two nations on board the nuclear deal, even while pushing economic and technological ties with them to a new, potentially advantageous plane.

Many of the issues, including the formulation on India's efforts to secure supplies of nuclear fuel and technology in the wake of the deal with the United States, that were addressed in the joint declaration issued at the end of the summit had been under negotiations for the last seven months. The expression of support for these efforts that finally emerged was eminently satisfactory to India even while taking note of the sensitivities of Brazil and South Africa.

After noting the important role nuclear energy could play to ensure the supply of safe, sustainable and non-polluting energy, the joint declaration says, "They [the three leaders] agreed to explore approaches to cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy under appropriate IAEA safeguards. They further agreed that 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."

While uncertainty surrounds the nuclear deal with the U.S., official sources were heartened by the support from Brazil and South Africa. The two countries are members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, whose approval would be necessary for the deal with the U.S. to come into operation, and Brazil currently chairs the group. Secondly, the two countries had given up the option of building nuclear weapons though they possess the technological capability. India's deal with the U.S. had been criticised as being unfair to countries such as Brazil and South Africa, and gaining their support would remove much of the force behind the argument.

The joint declaration spoke of the "inalienable right" of all states to the peaceful application of nuclear energy consistent with their international obligations and called for a diplomatic resolution of the Iran nuclear issue within the IAEA. It also stressed the "systematic and progressive elimination of nuclear weapons in a comprehensive, universal, non-discriminatory and verifiable manner."

Also providing comfort to India was the strong position taken on the question of international terrorism. The presidents of Brazil and South Africa "expressed their outrage at the barbaric terrorist attacks carried out on July 11, 2006 in Mumbai and other parts of India. ... They called upon the international community to undertake all necessary measures to bring to justice perpetrators, collaborators and sponsors of these and other acts of terrorism, as well as those who incite the perpetrators to commit them."

The three countries pledged to work for the successful completion of the Doha round of trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation and called upon the developed countries to improve their proposals on reducing their domestic support to agriculture and providing market access. They decided to establish a working group to focus on the modalities of a trilateral free trade agreement among India, MERCOSUR (the South American group comprising Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina) and the Southern African Customs Union.

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