SPEECHES / STATEMENTS 

PM’s opening remarks at the Plenary Session of IBSA Summit

October 17, 2007, South Africa

“I am delighted to be in South Africa for the Second Summit meeting of IBSA. I express our deep appreciation to the government and people of South Africa for hosting this Summit.

I am happy that fruitful discussions have taken place at the Academic Seminar, the Business Seminar and the newly instituted Women’s and Parliamentarians’ Forums.

When I had the privilege of meeting the Foreign Ministers of IBSA last July, I said to them that it is important to consolidate our gains. We should focus our time and resources to ensure productive outcomes in agreed priority areas of trilateral cooperation.

Out of the several Working Groups that we have set up, only those on ICT and Trade and Investment have met thrice. We can agree today that by the time of the next Summit all the Groups should complete one cycle of meetings in each of our countries. At the next Summit, we would then be in a position to take stock of the areas we should concentrate on and where cooperation is proving useful.

I am particularly pleased that discussions have begun on the India-SACU-Mercosur FTA. This is a bold initiative to give an impetus to our trading ties and we will work sincerely to bring it to fruition.

With regard to global issues we are increasingly consulting each other on the margins of major international meetings. We should encourage this so that we can have common IBSA positions on important international issues.

Last year we had agreed that assisting other developing countries should be one of the thrust areas of IBSA cooperation. I propose that we work on one big flagship IBSA project using the Fund for Poverty and Hunger, which will convey our commitment in this area.

All developing countries face the challenge of balancing the need for more rapid growth with the need to address the problem of social inequality. Each of our countries has attempted innovative solutions to bring about inclusive growth. I am happy that we will discuss the issue of social development later on, including how to share experiences.

The lack of adequate connectivity continues to hamper our cooperation. We should reflect on how to encourage air and maritime links, which may not be commercially viable to begin with.

I look forward to having substantive and productive discussions today on strengthening the IBSA process. If the IBSA movement is to catch the imagination of our people we should move from a declaratory phase to one of time bound action.

We all recognise the immense potential of IBSA. With the necessary political will and an outcome-based approach, I have no doubt that we will be able to realise this potential.”