India, Brazil and South Africa have agreed that in the interest of promoting international security, they would cooperate in promoting maritime and air safety. Their efforts would include combating illegal weapons and narcotic traffic and maritime transit of toxic chemicals and radioactive wastes across the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. This was decided during the six-day visit of Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes to South Africa.

Defence Minister of South Africa, Mr Mosiuoa Lekota, Defence Minster of Brazil, Mr Jose Viegas Filho and Mr George Fernandes met in Pretoria to promote tri-lateral cooperation in areas of defence and mutual security. The purpose of the meeting was to follow the Brasilia Declaration of India, Brazil, South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum initiated by the Foreign Ministers of the respective countries in June last year. In accordance with the objectives set in the Brasilia Declaration, the three Defence Ministers exchanged views on common security concerns with specific reference to the security situation in their regions. They also discussed issues related to international security and underlined the necessity of a dialogue amongst developing nations.

The Defence Ministers agreed that it would be mutually beneficial to foster interaction amongst the three countries as their defence industries have been making presence in diverse areas. They also agreed to explore cooperation among the defence research institutions of the three countries and their respective defence industries to provide inputs for identification of projects.

Training was identified as another area with a significant potential for mutually beneficial cooperation and the three ministers agreed to institutionalise exchanges among the respective defence training institutions. It was also agreed upon to initiate steps for joint peacekeeping training/exercises.