Indian PM embarks on 3-day visit to Pretoria to attend IBSA Summit

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday embarked on a three-day visit to Pretoria to attend the trilateral India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Summit.The summit is expected to be dominated by pressing global issues such as the difficult economic scenario and UN-related matters. During his visit, Prime Minister Singh would also have bilateral meetings with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and South African President Jacob Zuma. In his pre-departure statement, the Indian prime minister said he looked forward to an 'exchange of views with our IBSA partners on the current global economic and financial situation especially in the context of the forthcoming G-20 Summit in France'. The three leaders are also to discuss possible steps that needed to be taken to address the economic situation, which has become difficult in view of the crisis in Europe, officials said. The fifth IBSA summit of the three leading emerging nations of three different continents would sart on Tuesday. Prime Minister Singh said the Summit was also expected to focus on coordination among IBSA countries in United Nations Security Council, sustainable development, the forthcoming meetings of the Conference of Parties under the UNFCCC and the Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol being hosted by South Africa later this year, the Rio+20 Conference being hosted by Brazil in 2012 and other matters related to deepening of cooperation under IBSA. Issues related to international security such as terrorism and maritime safety are also expected to be discussed. The leaders of the three countries, which are aspirants for permanent membership of the Security Council, are also expected to discuss issues related to UN reforms.