Brazil, S Africa to sign N-deal with India

Such cooperation is not possible unless India reaches an agreement with the US.

There is now one more reason why the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement should be concluded quickly. Brazil and South Africa have agreed to sign a similar agreement with India.

This, however, is not possible unless the 123 Agreement, which will operationalise the deal with the US, becomes operational.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, at a Press conference with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and South African External Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, conceded that the joint communiqué issued after the trilateral India-Brazil South Africa (IBSA) meeting could not be operationalised until the nuclear deal with the US became operational.

Brazil and South Africa are members of the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) and are important to countering the objections of other nations that India cannot be given nuclear fuel as it has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

"We have just concluded our very fruitful and productive deliberations of the 4th IBSA Trilateral Commission. It was just three years ago that the First IBSA Trilateral Commission meeting was held. In this period, we have been working towards enhancing cooperation in areas such as science and technology, education, agriculture, energy, culture, health, social issues, public administration and revenue administration," Mukherjee said.

"Today, we have agreed on a forward-looking and substantive agenda of cooperation in the IBSA framework in sectors which are of particular interest to our three countries," he added.

The three countries favoured early conclusion of the stalled Doha round of the WTO talks and asked rich nations to eliminate distortions in global trade and allow greater access to developing countries.