South Africa takes IBSA chair with a demand to reshape the Security Council

South Africa has taken the chair of the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum for 2026 to 2027 and used its first ministerial meeting to press for a Security Council that reflects the world of today rather than 1945.

International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola chaired the IBSA Ministerial Meeting in New York on Thursday, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, with Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. The three countries reaffirmed the forum’s role as a vehicle for South-South cooperation, according to SAnews (South African Government News Agency).

Lamola said South Africa had assumed the chairship with an understanding of the responsibility attached to the platform and of the work the three countries have done over more than two decades.

“As like-minded emerging economies, we recognise that we have a collective role to play in addressing and correcting the imbalances in the global economy,” he said.

He stressed that IBSA is not a bloc and not an alliance against anyone. “It is a conversation amongst three democracies of the South, three continents and three regions, three great civilisations, who came to view that the world as it is organised does not reflect the world as it actually is,” the Minister said.

Lamola said the current international environment has placed pressure on the principles underpinning multilateral cooperation, including respect for the UN Charter, international law and international humanitarian law. “IBSA exists precisely for this,” he said. “This is an important platform to strengthen and uphold the United Nations Charter, multilateralism, international law, and international humanitarian law.”

Defending the existing system was not enough, he said. “We must advance the reform of global governance in the direction of more just, equitable, and representative international and multilateral system, a Security Council that reflects the world of today, rather than the world of 1945.” He said this should extend to international financial institutions and the global trading system, with rules applied consistently and equitably.

Vieira said IBSA brings together three major democracies from three continents with shared principles and the capacity to contribute to a fairer international order. He said the international system faces pressure from the growing use of unilateral measures and the erosion of established multilateral rules.

Trade was a particular concern. “Trade must not become an instrument of political pressure or geopolitical rivalry,” Vieira said, warning against the proliferation of tariffs and non-tariff measures that can disrupt trade and investment. He said the three countries should work together to defend a transparent and rules-based multilateral trading system centred on the World Trade Organisation.

On the Security Council, Vieira argued that developing countries should have a greater presence in both permanent and non-permanent categories. “A Security Council that does not adequately represent Africa, Asia and Latin America cannot fully reflect the world on whose behalf it is expected to act,” he said. He also called for stronger representation in global economic governance and stressed the importance of South Africa’s participation in the G20.

India joined the call for comprehensive and time-bound reform of the council. “We must work collectively towards expanding the UN Security Council in both categories in a time-bound manner to make it more democratic, representative, protective and efficient,” the Indian delegation said.

On development, Vieira said the IBSA Fund for the Alleviation of Hunger and Poverty shows how developing countries can cooperate through locally owned initiatives rather than conditional assistance. “South-owned, South-led and driven by local needs,” he said. He proposed closer alignment between the fund and the Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, and backed the proposed International Panel on Inequality being advanced by Brazil, South Africa, Spain and Norway.

India noted that IBSA Fund projects have supported education, health, women’s empowerment and solar energy, and proposed greater cooperation on digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence, including a possible IBSA Digital Innovation Alliance for sharing experience and best practice. “IBSA can assume a leading role in emerging technologies, particularly in the areas of digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence,” the delegation said. It also stressed that developing countries need access to affordable finance and technology to meet climate goals.

South Africa has placed peace, prosperity and development at the centre of its chairship, drawn from the forum’s founding principles. Lamola said the focus would include political engagement, technical cooperation through IBSA working groups, people-to-people exchanges and practical projects through the IBSA Fund. Among the priorities are sustainable energy and ensuring energy transitions are financed in a way that does not place developing countries in an impossible position, along with poverty alleviation and zero hunger, foundational learning and future skills, and new technologies.

He called on the three countries to align their priorities into a single work programme. “We are also aware of the important priorities of Brazil and India. Let us integrate this into one work programme for the coming year, which we can pursue through the working groups,” he said, adding that South Africa would review the existing working groups to ensure they support the forum’s strategic objectives.

Preparations are underway for a senior officials’ meeting in October 2026, with a possible virtual IBSA leaders meeting in 2027 and an eventual leaders’ summit at a mutually agreed time and venue. “As the chair of IBSA, South Africa will continue to steer the ship for the benefit of the global South and our peoples,” Lamola said.

IBSA was established in 2003 as a trilateral forum bringing together three major democracies and developing economies from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The meeting took place as South Africa uses its wider multilateral engagements during UNGA81 to advance reform of global governance and advocate for greater representation of developing countries in international institutions.

Source: SAnews (South African Government News Agency), IBSA ministers reaffirm South-South cooperation amid push for fairer global order, https://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/ibsa-ministers-reaffirm-south-south-cooperation-amid-push-fairer-global-order