IBSA summit for coop in civilian Nuke energy

Brasilia, Sept 14: The first summit of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum here yesterday lent its suport for "forward looking approaches" to enhance international civilian nuclear energy cooperation.

The agreement on this came as a major boost for India which is seeking to promote its nuclear energy programme.

Brazil is the current chair of the 44- member Nuclear Suppliers Group and South Africa is a member and India is counting on them and other members to help adjust NSG guidelines to enable member-countries to cooperate with it in the area of civilian nuclear energy.

"They agreed that international civilian nuclear cooperation, under appropriate IAEA safeguards, amongst 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 joint declaration issued at the end of the one-day summit said.

The summit was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.

"It is a matter of satisfaction for India that the Joint Declaration reflects the importance that the IBSA countries attach to increasing international civilian nuclear cooperation through forward looking approaches," Dr Singh said in a statement at a joint press conference with Presidents Mbeki and Lula after the summit Overall, the one-day summit came up with a bold and comprehensive agenda of cooperation among the three countries designed to address their common problems of poverty and underdevelopment and give the grouping a powerful voice in international affairs.

The meeting also decided to develop institutional and business linkages in areas such as energy, sustainable development, trade, transportation and science and technology.

"We have all pledged to work earnestly to implement this bold and comprehensive agenda of cooperation," Dr Singh said at the press conference.

The three countries signed five trilateral agreements aimed at enhancing cooperation among them in various areas. They signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on setting up a trilateral task team on biofuels. It will look at ways of establishing a world market for biofuels, particularly for ethanol and bio-diesel.

The three countries also signed agreements on cooperation in the area of information society, agriculture and allied fields, merchant shipping and other maritime transport- related matters, and trade facilitation for standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment.

In the joint declaration, the three leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the promotion of peace, security and sustainable economic and social development.

They also stressed their commitment to multi-lateralism and the pre-eminent role of the United Nations.

The summit called for an early decision on the expansion of the UN Security Council to include developing countries from Asia, Africa and Latin America in its permanent and non-permanent categories.

"They reaffirmed their commitment to continue to jointly pursue a decision on Security Council expansion," the declaration said.

The summit condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Stressing that there can be no justification, whatsoever, for any act of terrorism, they called upon the international community to further intensify efforts and cooperation to fight this scourge.

Presidents Mbeki and Lula expressed their outrage at the "barbaric terrorist attacks" in Mumbai on July 11 and other parts of India. They conveyed their condolences to the families of the victims and expressed their solidarity with the government and the people of India.

They called upon the international community to to undertake all necessary measures to bring to justice the perpetrators, collaborators and sponsors of these and other acts of terrorism, as well as those who incite the perpetrators to commit them.

They decided to further intensify measures to combat the scourge of terrorism, which they felt constituted "a most serious threat to mankind and international peace and security."

The summit reiterated its strong commitment to the Action Against Hunger and Poverty Initiative and, in particular, the Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome. They noted with satisfaction the progress towards creating an International Drug Purchasing Facility to respond to the challenges of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. They also committed themselves to enhancing trilateral cooperation in the fight against these diseas.

The leaders reiterated their commitment to the goal of complete elimination of nuclear weapons. They called for an early start to negotiations on a phased programme for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons in a comprehensive, non-discriminatory and verifiable manner with a specified framework of time.

The summit deeply regretted that the WTO's Doha Development Agenda negotiations had been suspended.

"Failure to conclude the negotiations in accordance with the mandate will deprive developing countries of fair and equitable conditions for fully realizing their Right to Development," the leaders said.

They said distortions affecting agricultural trade and production should be expeditiously eliminated and agriculture should be fully incorporated into the rules of the multilateral trading system. They called upon countries that have not yet done so to substantially and effectively reduce their expenditures on agricultural subsidies.

India, Brazil and South Africa shall spare no effort to resume the suspended negotiations, the joint declaration said.

The leaders praised the IBSA Facility Fund as a unique example of South-South cooperation and expressed satisfaction with the initiatives taken by the fund in Guinea Bissau and Haiti.

The three leaders committed to allocate at least one million dollars a year to the fund and urged developing countries, especially the Least Developed Countries, to submit projects to it.

In his concluding remarks, President Lula said he had rarely participated in discussions which were so intense and focussed.

He wondered how much progress the three countries, with a combined population of more than 1.250 billion people, could have achieved if something like IBSA had been launched two decades ago.

"But it is never too late to correct mistakes of the past," he said, expressing tremendous optimism about IBSA's ability to implement the plans drawn up by it.

"There is a lot we can learn from each other," he said, stressing the need for combining the strengths and resources of the three countries.

UNI