IBSA has been overshadowed by BRICS, yet initiatives like IBSAMAR keep it relevant. Critically examine.

The IBSA Dialogue Forum was formalised by the foreign ministers of India, Brazil and South Africa at Brasilia on 6 June 2003 [1]. It links three democracies on three continents. BRICS has the same three members plus China and Russia, and it has drawn away much of IBSA's political energy. Still, practical tracks like IBSAMAR keep the forum useful, though less than it could be.

How IBSA has been overshadowed

• No summit for 15 years: the last leaders' summit was the 5th, at Pretoria in 2011 [2].
• Low priority: foreign ministers now meet only on the sidelines of the UNGA, most recently in September 2024 [2].
• Overlap with BRICS: BRICS has the same three members and a bigger economic agenda, so IBSA can look like a smaller copy of it.
• Ties moving to two-country deals: India and South Africa signed a separate submarine rescue agreement in 2024 [3]. This thins out the three-country format.

Why IBSA stays relevant

• A separate identity: IBSA has no China or Russia. It lets three democracies speak together on UNSC reform and maritime order.
• Working naval cooperation: IBSAMAR IX (2026) at Simon's Town, with INS Tarkash, worked on interoperability and backed "safe, secure and open seas underpinned by a rules-based order" [4]. BRICS has no regular naval exercise that includes all its members.
• Wider maritime reach: the exercise takes the Indian Navy to the Cape of Good Hope, beyond the Indian Ocean Region, in line with SAGAR/MAHASAGAR [4].
• Development results: the IBSA Fund has allocated over US$53.27 million to 46 projects in 34 countries, mostly LDCs [2].

Limits of IBSAMAR

• Editions are held irregularly, so the "repeated interactions" that interoperability needs are broken [4].
• India sends a single frigate, and the recent editions were held off South Africa [2][4]. The South Atlantic, on Brazil's side, gets little practice.

IBSA is therefore under-used rather than obsolete. Its naval and development tracks continue even as summits have lapsed. The way forward has three steps:

• hold editions off Brazil in turn;
• fix a biennial schedule in writing;
• revive the summit with a shared maritime agenda on piracy and illegal fishing.

Done together, these would put IBSA back at the centre of South–South cooperation and SDG 14 (Life Below Water).