South Africa and India will share intelligence to help prevent international terrorism, President Thabo Mbeki said on Monday.
He met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the Union Buildings in Pretoria where they signed a declaration “reaffirming the strategic partnership” between the two countries.
As part of the declaration the two countries said they would continue to work towards the early adoption of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the United Nations.
“To the extent that any act of terrorism occurs, it must mean that the war has not been won.
“I don’t think anyone would say it has, the struggle continues on that,” Mbeki said when asked how the war on terror was going.
He said it was important to find ways of forewarning to try to stop acts of terror.
“Sharing of information becomes important, as extensively as possible, so that if we are able to warn one another to watch that or the other, that should be done,” he said.
According to the declaration the two leaders were deeply concerned about international terrorism, extremism, trans-borderorganised crime and illicit trafficking in humans and in arms and drugs.
India backs SA Security Council seat
Meanwhile, India supports a permanent seat for South Africa on the UN Security Council, Singh said on Monday.
“South Africa, by virtue of its standing, by virtue of its role in Africa and in the international community, is entitled to that,” Singh told a press conference following his meeting with Mbeki.
UN reform, and particularly the reform of the security council, were high on the agenda of the talks.
“We decided to strengthen our cooperation in the reform of the UN system and, in particular, reform and expansion of the UN Security Council, without which the overall reform of the UN will remain incomplete,” Singh said.
In 2004 India, Brazil, Japan and Germany jointly announced their willingness to serve on the Security Council. South Africa has since formed a trilateral commission with India and Brazil.
The Security Council currently comprises five permanent members — China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 elected members that have a two-year term.
Several countries have been pushing for an expanded security council, but there are several conflicting proposals.
Several African countries have said they would like to take a seat on the security council, among them Nigeria, Libya, Egypt and Kenya.
“We need to bring maximum pressure to bear on this matter so that there can be movement forward,” Mbeki said about the UN reform.
He said the two countries would work with others to see how they could speed up the reform process.
‘Defiance’
In September, Mbeki said the UN could face “defiance” from member states if it does not reform to give broader representation to the world’s people.
Mbeki told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council were abusing their power and failing to enact reforms that would respect international will.
“I’m quite certain at some point it would generate, in a sense, a kind of spirit of defiance,” Mbeki said, speaking in Havana where he was at a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement at the time.
“We are not represented properly in these institutions. Why do they think they have the capacity to take decisions for all of us?”
South Africa is among the countries campaigning for changes to the UN system and an expansion of the Security Council.
Debate over the reforms has largely pitted developing nations, which represent the majority of the body’s members, against rich western countries, which pay most of the UN’s bills.
The African Union wants the council to be enlarged to 26 seats, including six new permanent seats with veto rights, two of which would go to Africa.