India, Brazil and South Africa on Friday said they would sit on the same side of the fence in the United Nations and World Trade Organisation (WTO), but that their "closeness" should not be viewed as a threat by other countries.
Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said a two-day meeting ending on Friday under the just-established India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum had yielded "surprisingly quick results".
"We stood together at (WTO talks in) Cancun and at this meeting we agreed to continue the rock-solid co-operation. This group is not against any country - it stands for peace," Sinha said at the trilateral commission meeting.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin added: "We should not underestimate the power of three large democracies from three different geographies coming together, not to confront anyone but to defend ourselves ... and add our voice to global trade and security issues."
India and Brazil were leaders among developing countries which banded together at the failed WTO talks in Cancun last September to press the developed world to phase out farm subsidies.
The Cancun talks collapsed after delegates failed to agree on eliminating farm subsidies in industrialised nations and proposals to extend the WTO mandate to cross-border investment.
Brazil has been seeking a free trade deal among developing countries as a way of offsetting the trading clout of developed nations, and is keen to work on a trilateral trade agreement with India and South Africa. "The objective is to have a Free Trade Area but it is a step-by-step process," said Amorin.
"We are negotiating with India and we are negotiating with South Africa. There will be a moment when we will have to co-ordinate our efforts to make our geography into a FTA," he added.
India and South Africa, meanwhile, agreed Friday to the Brazilian proposal to establish a trilateral business council, which will help businesspeople from the three countries forge joint ventures.
"If we have very strong trade and economic links we will always be friends," South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said.
To further overall strategic co-operation, the defence ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa will meet later this year.
"The defence ministers of our countries met last month in Pretoria and looked at various avenues for co-operation like joint military production and research and development," said Sinha.
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