IBSA should address areas of 'inadequate' progress: India

Sun, May 11 10:09 PM

Cape Town, May 11 (PTI) Seeking the "broadening and deepening" of three-way ties among IBSA countries, India today said the time has come to address the areas of cooperation where progress had been "inadequate". The India-Brazil-South Africa forum enabled the three countries to coordinate on vital issues of direct concern and facilitated South-South cooperation, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at the fifth IBSA Inter-Ministerial Commission meeting in the town of Somerset West near here.

Describing the grouping as a "unique forum", he said the time had come for the countries in IBSA to transform memoranda of understanding and agreements into "real activities and joint projects on the ground". "This broadening and deepening of our cooperative activities is important," Mukherjee, who arrived here last night, said.

"What is equally encouraging is that different sectors of our countries to develop IBSA profiles. We encourage this trend.

At the same time we must take a close look at the areas of cooperation that have already been decided upon but inadequate progress has taken place. We need to uplift and improve the areas of cooperation amongst ourselves," he said.

South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who hosted the meeting, and Brazil's Minister of External Relations Celso Amorim represented their countries. "The success of IBSA requires a substantive economic undertaking.

Our leaders have put down the (trade) target of up to USD 10 million by 2010. I am encouraged by the fact that at the end of 2007, we had exceeded a combined turnover of USD 10 million," Mukherjee said.

PTI.

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