Trip to Brazil a voyage of discovery: PM

On Board Air India One, Sep 15: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today described his three-day visit to Brazil, during which he held bilateral talks with the Brazilian leadership and attended the first India- Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Summit, as a "voyage of discovery."

Talking to journalists travelling with him on the flight from Brasilia to Havana, where he will attend the 14th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, Dr Singh said he had some idea about the scope for a multi- faceted relationship between India and Brazil.

"This was something not so evident to me until I interacted with the Brazilian leadership and particularly President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva," he said.

Dr Singh said he found an ardent desire among the Brazilian leaders, including President Lula, as well as members of civil society to get to know India more intimately and to use all avenues for promoting better economic, political and cultural links between the two countries.

He said there were many areas of complementarity between India and Brazil, "the locomotive economy of Latin America." He listed agriculture, agricultural research, science and technology, particularly information technology,and energy, especially biofuels, as the areas in which the two countries could enhance cooperation.

Dr Singh said the two countries could also collaborate in the production of new medicines and vaccines, focussing on issues such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

"The amount of goodwill and affection that exists for India in Brazil is something to be seen to be believed," he remarked.

The Prime Minister said the IBSA summit had shown that the three countries had a lot to learn from each other.

"The countries of the South do not known enough about each other's problems, about each other's possibilities for cooperation," he pointed out.

He said there was tremendous scope for boosting trade among the three countries and cooperating in the area of energy security.

The Prime Minister said he would be visiting South Africa later this month to participate in the 100th anniversary of Satyagraha launched by Mahatma Gandhi.

"That will be another major opportunity to interact with the leadership of South Africa," he said.

He described President Lula and South African President Thabo Mbeki as "tried and tested friends" of India.

"IBSA has already caught the imagination of observers from other region...We three leaders have pledged to build a hospitable climate for promoting unstinted cooperation among our three countries," he added.

UNI

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