By IANS
New Delhi : Foreign ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa will meet here next week to firm up the agenda for the second IBSA summit to be held in Johannesburg in October.
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will meet his counterparts, Celso Amorim of Brazil and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of South Africa, separately on Monday for bilateral talks, official sources told IANS.
As Brazil and South Africa are important members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, India is likely to again seek their support for civil nuclear cooperation when Mukherjee meets Amorim and Dlamini Zuma.
Mukherjee will also discuss with them ways to expand bilateral cooperation in trade, energy, science and technology and culture, sources said.
The three ministers will participate in the IBSA trilateral commission Tuesday to exhaustively discuss IBSA-related issues for the summit and set a template for expanding multi-faceted cooperation among the three emerging powers of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The ministers will also evaluate achievements and failures in promoting IBSA cooperation in diverse areas including technology, information and skills transfers, social development, poverty alleviation and job creation, the source said.
They will appraise projects implemented through the IBSA Trust Fund and discuss new proposals for intensifying trilateral cooperation in this regional forum.
Dlamini Zuma arrives here Saturday. Brazil’s Amorim will come the next day.
India set the stage for the ministerial meeting and the forthcoming IBSA summit Thursday with the cabinet clearing a draft pact for trilateral cooperation in public administration and governance among the three countries comprising the grouping.
Brazil hosted the first IBSA summit in September last year.