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Brazil, India tighten ties before summit with South Africa
By Jorge Svartzman
AFP
BRASILIA
Petroleumworld.com 09 14 06
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tightened their countries' ties Tuesday by agreeing on a "strategic partnership" on the political and economic fronts.
The leaders of the emerging economies met in Brasilia on the eve of a three-nation summit with South African President Thabo Mbeki.
India and Brazil signed several new agreements including on energy, cultural exchanges and agricultural cooperation.
The South Asian and South American powerhouses have shared a common vision in heated debates on international trade and the expansion of the United Nations Security Council.
Lula visited New Delhi in January 2004 as part of his effort to boost relations between developing countries.
"Since then, we have worked intensely in various fronts to deepen our political and economic alliance, which we have now decided to elevate to strategic partnership status," Lula said.
"Brazil and India are two great democracies of the developing world, with many common interests and affinity in their vision for the great problems of today," he said.
"Our democratic commitment is also reflected in the positions we have taken in multilateral forums, in favor of a more fair and balanced international system," he said.
The two countries form with Japan and Germany a group calling for the enlargement of the UN Security Council from 15 to 25 members.
Brazil and India are also leaders in the G20 group of emerging nations fighting rich countries' agricultural subsidies in the World Trade Organization.
"In President Lula we have a brother and a friend," Singh said. "We admire the leadership that he has provided to the developing world as a whole."
"India and Brazil are large, pluralistic democracies," he said. "Our economic growth is broad-based and multifaceted. This provides opportunities for expansion of our bilateral trade and economic relations."
One of the central joint projects is developing ethanol fuel as an alternative to oil. The two nations agreed Tuesday to create the Joint Committee on Biofuels.
Brazil, which taps into its huge sugar cane production to make ethanol, announced that it would help India and South Africa produce the alternative fuel.
"Indian companies from both public and private sector have evinced interest in exploring production opportunities in Brazil to meet the anticipated growth in ethanol use in India for both industrial as well as automobile use," Singh said.
Lula said Brazil wanted to contribute to India's efforts to find "sustainable energy alternatives."
On the eve of Singh's meeting with Lula, Indian Foreign Minister Anand Sharma underscored the significance of their talks.
"This a historic turnaround in the engagement between two major democracies, the largest in the world and in Asia, as India, and the largest one in Latin America," Sharma told reporters late Monday.
Trade between the two nations skyrocketed last year.
Last year, Brazil's exports to India soared to 1.1 billion dollars, a 75 percent increase over 2004, according to official Brazilian figures. Imports from India totaled 1.2 billion dollars, a 116 percent rise.
Mbeki arrives in Brasilia Wednesday for the first Brazil-India-South Africa summit.
Trilateral agreements are expected in shipping, agriculture, health and information technology, according to Indian sources.
The trio created the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum in 2003 to promote the interests of the three large emerging economies.
AFP 130151 GMT 09 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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