India-Brasil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA) gains strength at G20 meeting

Foreign Affairs ministers from the three Global South countries—who coincidentally make up the current G20 Troika—met to strengthen ties and align common agendas. “IBSA democracies strive to overcome poverty and are of great geopolitical importance within their regions," explained Ambassador Eduardo Paes Saboia, Secretary for Asia and the Pacific at Brasil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Among Brasil's expectations for the G20 presidency, in addition to the high-level discussions around the three main priorities established for this mandate, is the revitalization and strengthening of the India-Brasil-South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA).

To this end, Brasil’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira—who is scheduled to participate in 17 bilateral meetings at the Rio de Janeiro meeting—invited Chancellor Grace Naledi Pandor, from South Africa, and Minister V. Muraleedharan, from India, to the forum’s first ministerial meeting in many years.

Created in 2003 during President Lula's first term, the organization harbors three large multiethnic, multiracial and Global South democracies. "This is its distinctive mark. IBSA democracies strive to overcome poverty and are of great geopolitical importance within their regions", explained Ambassador Eduardo Paes Saboia, Secretary for Asia and the Pacific at Brasil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to the Ambassador, like BRICS—a bloc that was created later and which also includes the three countries—IBSA is part of a movement that strives to bring about changes in the international order based on the vision and interests of Global South countries.

At the February 22 meeting, the ministers decided to strengthen the IBSA Fund, a South-South cooperation initiative; and to hold a first meeting of authorities belonging to the forum on food security and nutrition, in alignment with one of the three priorities defined by President Lula for the G20

Another advance was the three ministers’ agreement to hold an IBSA Summit in Rio de Janeiro, in November 2024, featuring the participation of invited countries for the first time. The idea is to establish dialogues not only in the South-South, but also in the South-North axes.

For the Summit, the forum will work towards building consensus in important fields such as taxation to reduce inequalities; coordinated positions on matters for the reform of the UN, including the Security Council; strengthening multilateralism; and environmental issues.