Treat IBSA as good BRICS

The IBSA Dialogue Forum had its institutional birth in 2003 at the ministerial meeting in Brasilia with the primary objective of promoting South-South co-operation. However, the first official summit took place in Brasilia in September 2006.

- Ash Narain Roy

This Gondwana alliance gave IBSA a critical geostrategic dimension of connectivity among the three continents—Asia, Africa and America. Significantly, India found this rare high-profile platform to trumpet its affinity for other democracies.

The German Institute of Human and Area Studies, in its working paper, described the IBSA Dialogue Forum “both as a strategic alliance for the pursuit of common interests of developing countries in global institutions but also as a platform for trilateral and inter-regional South-South cooperation.”

Only a year earlier, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his discussion with US President George Bush had endorsed a Global Democracy initiative and contributed $10 million to the UN Democracy Fund. The world took note of this new constellation. As Elizabeth Sidiropoulos of the South African Institute of International Affairs put it, IBSA emerged as the “G8 of the South”.

The essence of the grouping was what President Jacob Zuma called “back to basics”, a platform to demonstrate that democracy and development can work together for a better and dignified life.

Why is IBSA so invisible today? It is sad that IBSA allowed itself to be overshadowed and gobbled up by BRICS. If today IBSA finds itself “under the pile of BRICS”, it is only itself to blame. Now that BRICS has expanded, IBSA is breathing heavily.

After a gap of more than six years, the 8th IBSA Trilateral Ministerial Commission Meeting was held on October 17, 2017, in Durban. Only half a dozen IBSA Leadership Summits have been held so far. The 5th standalone IBSA Summit was held in Pretoria on 18 October 2011.

India has made efforts to keep the IBSA forum afloat. In September 2022, India hosted the 10th India-Brazil-South Africa Trilateral Ministerial Commission Meeting. As IBSA Chair, India hosted the 6th IBSA Summit on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in November 2022.