Johannesburg, Nov 23 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday attended the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Leaders’ Meeting in Johannesburg and discussed trilateral cooperation and commitment of the participating nations to the Global South.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were also present during the meeting.
South Africa is the current IBSA Chair. IBSA is a unique Forum which brings together India, Brazil and South Africa, three large democracies and major economies from three different continents, facing similar challenges, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The grouping was formalised and named the IBSA Dialogue Forum when the Foreign Ministers of the three countries met in Brasilia on June 6, 2023, and issued the Brasilia Declaration.
While addressing a special media briefing on PM Modi’s visit to South Africa on November 20, Sudhakar Dalela, Secretary (Economic Relations), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated, “As all of you know, India, Brazil, and South Africa are three democracies from three continents, all from the Global South. And we have a very unique forum of coordinating among ourselves around three pillars of cooperation, I would say. One is the political coordination. The second is trilateral cooperation that we do, including people-to-people contact. And thirdly, what we do collectively as IBSA for countries in the Global South, particularly on the aspect of food and hunger through the IBSA fund.”
“So, this meeting, although it is a meeting happening on the sidelines of a summit, will be a short meeting. I’m confident that the three leaders will be reviewing what we have been following up on under these three pillars of cooperation in recent times. I would also like to say that only in September this year, on the margins of UNGA in New York, the IBSA foreign ministers had also met and issued a statement on some of the themes that we keep discussing among ourselves as like-minded countries,” he added.
On Sunday, PM Modi held a meeting with South African President Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders Summit in Johannesburg. The video shared on X showed the two leaders warmly greeting each other before proceeding to the meeting.
External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Secretary (Economic Relations) Sudhakar Dalela and other officials were present at the meeting.
Sharing video of the meeting on X, South Africa’s Presidency stated, “His Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa is in a bilateral meeting with His Excellency Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Republic of India on the margins of the Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders’ Summit hosted by South Africa. Johannesburg EXPO Centre, Gauteng.”
“This morning’s bilateral meeting between the Heads of State provides an opportunity to re-engage constructively, strengthen bilateral relations, and explore mutually beneficial initiatives in trade, industrialisation, education, ICT, and infrastructure development,” it added.
On Saturday, Ramaphosa warmly welcomed PM Modi as he arrived to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit at Nasrec in Johannesburg.
While addressing both sessions of the opening day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, PM Modi underlined the need for stronger global cooperation, disaster resilience and sustainable development.
In a series of posts on X, and according to detailed remarks shared by the Prime Minister’s Office, PM Modi highlighted India’s human-centric approach to growth and urged the grouping to adopt fresh parameters of development that balance progress with planetary well-being.
Taking to X, the Prime Minister said the second session of the Summit focused on building a resilient world in the face of disasters and climate change, ensuring just energy transitions, and strengthening global food systems. “India has been actively working on all these fronts, building a future that is human-centric and inclusive,” he wrote.
Reiterating India’s long-held view that major global challenges require coordinated global solutions, PM Modi said this conviction had driven India’s decision to establish the Disaster Risk Reduction Working Group during its G20 Presidency. He added that disaster management must move away from a purely “response-centric” model to a “development-centric” one, citing the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure as an example of this approach.
The Prime Minister also proposed the creation of a G20 Open Satellite Data Partnership, which would make satellite data and analysis from G20 space agencies more accessible to developing countries, especially in the Global South. He stressed that improved access to space-based tools would assist nations in agriculture, fisheries, and disaster management.
–IANS
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