As part of the new trilateral cooperation between the three countries, India is likely to oversee cooperation in health and science and technology including space sciences and applications, Brazil is likely to oversee cooperation in agriculture and environment and South Africa is likely to oversee cooperation in trade, investment and tourism.

The Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh is slated to ink new bilateral cooperation with Brazil after his discussions with President Dilma Rousseff and with South Africa after talks with President Jacob Zuma.

The leaders of the three countries are likely to discuss issues of global terrorism and tackling organized crime, maritime security and sea transport cooperation at the forthcoming 5th IBSA Summit being hosted on October 18 in Pretoria.

One of the important outcomes of the recent defence cooperation was the IBSA Maritime Cooperation (IBSAMAR) which took place on the seaboard of South Africa last year where the navies of the three countries participated. The intra-IBSA cooperation for security interests of the three countries is being promoted and is moving forward. The IBSA Working Group on Defence Cooperation will meet in the same venue.

Within the IBSA Working Group on Transport a sub-group the aspect of maritime and transport cooperation is slated to be discussed. Several studies have suggested that India’s exports to South America using South African ports could reduce transportation costs by 40 to 50%. The sub-group is deliberating whether this proposal will be cost effective than reaching directly. The bilateral trade between India and South Africa is about $ 7.5 billion per year.

The IBSA Business Forum is slated to conclude its deliberation on Monday and the Indian delegation is led by the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister, Anand Sharma.

“The Summit is expected to focus, among other things, on coordination among IBSA countries in United Nations Security Council, sustainable development, the forthcoming meetings of the Conference of Parties under the UNFCCC and the Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol being hosted by South Africa later this year, the Rio+20 Conference being hosted by Brazil in 2012 and other matters related to deepening of cooperation under IBSA,” Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said before his departure to Pretoria.

He further said : “I also look forward to an exchange of views with our IBSA partners on the current global economic and financial situation especially in the context of the forthcoming G 20 Summit in France”

The Prime Minister’s official delegation includes the External Affairs Minister SM. Krishna; Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma; National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterjee; Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Media Advisor to the Prime Minister and other senior officials.

The format of the Summit envisages a restricted working meeting over lunch followed by a plenary meeting between the three leaders. The Summit will be presided over by the South African President Jacob Zuma.

In the run up to the current Fifth IBSA Summit, the Focal Point Meetings of senior officials took place in Pretoria on October 14, 2011. The Foreign Ministers of the three IBSA countries will hold their Ministerial Dialogue on October 17, 2011 which will be followed by the IBSA Summit proper on October 18.

IBSA came into being as a Dialogue Forum in June, 2003 at a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa. The first IBSA Summit took place in September, 2006 in Brazil. There were three subsequent Summits which took place in Pretoria in October 2007, in New Delhi in October 2008, and in Brazil in April 2010.

IBSA is a unique forum which brings together three large democracies from three different continents, which are Asia, Africa and the Americas, facing common aspirations and challenges. It is designed to leverage India’s position in the geo-politics as unlike the BRICS group it does not have its competitor, China.

India, Brazil and South Africa are pluralistic societies and developing nations. The three countries occupy an important position in their respective regions as also globally. They are all members of the G20, BRICS and BASIC group of countries. India and Brazil are part of G4. India, Brazil and South Africa are now non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. There was a perfect coordination between the three recently on voting on the resolution on Syria in UNSC, which led to the first ever walkout by the US. This shows that India, Brazil and South Africa can extend their cooperation and coordination on other global issues of importance.

Another area of South-South cooperation undertaken by IBSA is through IBSA Trust Fund set up the contribution of $ one million a year from each of the countries over the last five years. Two projects have been successfully completed in Haiti and in Palestine.

The IBSA Trust Fund is aimed at identifying and executing replicable and scalable projects in developing countries for capacity building. Projects have been conceived in Haiti, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Burundi, Palestine, Cambodia, Laos, Sierra Leone, Vietnam, Sudan and South Sudan. IBSA works in close coordination with the UNDP in monitoring and delivering these projects.

Cooperation in IBSA is perceived on three broad fronts. These include as a forum for consultation and coordination on significant political issues. It is seen as an instrument for trilateral collaboration on concrete areas and projects through 16 Working Groups and six People-to-People Forum and IBSA is involved in assisting other developing countries by developing projects in these countries through the IBSA Trust Fund.

The IBSA Working Groups include those relating to agriculture, economic (which is trade and industry), social development, education, environment, information society, public service administration, human settlement, transport, defence, energy, science and technology, health, heads of revenue administration, culture and tourism. The six People-to-People fora (or the civil society fora) include the Academic Forum, the Editors Forum, the Local Government Forum, the Parliamentary Forum, Small Business Forum and the Women’s Forum.

Some of the Working Groups have already held their sessions and some Working Group meetings are on going. The meeting of the Women’s Forum was held in Durban. Indian Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath participated in the meeting.