(Nov 23): US President Donald Trump’s targeted attacks against three of the world’s major emerging economies are prompting leaders of those countries to forge closer ties and push back against his aggressive trade policies.
Leaders from India, Brazil and South Africa met in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit on Sunday, to give greater importance to a trilateral grouping, the so-called IBSA forum. It’s the first time in more than a decade that the leaders are gathering under the auspices of the grouping, although foreign ministers have done so regularly over the years.
“Our grouping affirms that diversity is not a fault line but a source of strength,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in opening remarks. “We must position ourselves as co-architects of a more representative and responsive multilateral system.”
VIDEO | Johannesburg: PM Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) participates in the IBSA Leaders’ Meeting in South Africa.
IBSA — a trilateral forum comprising India, Brazil, and South Africa — focuses on South-South cooperation, global governance reforms, and strengthening collaboration… pic.twitter.com/WGFxk3JzaX
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) Nov 23, 2025.
Trump has upended Washington’s decades of careful diplomacy to cultivate relations with the three major emerging markets. He has targeted them with high tariffs and publicly rebuked the leaders for their domestic policies.
“The IBSA meeting is a message to Trump,” said Syed Akbaruddin, a former Indian envoy to the United Nations, who now teaches at the Kautilya School of Public Policy.
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With the US seemingly disinterested in the agenda for Africa and multilateral bodies, emerging economies are trying to find solutions on their own, he said. “It is difficult to predict how the US will react,” he added.
Trump has punished India for its ties with Russia by imposing 50% tariffs on goods shipped to the US, and angered New Delhi with his repeated claims of brokering a ceasefire with Pakistan. In South Africa, Trump has boycotted the G20 Summit and made false allegations of a genocide of White farmers in the country.
The US president has also targeted Brazil with high tariffs to force it drop a trial against his friend, former leader Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of plotting a coup against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Lula fought back against Trump, who has since moved to exempt many goods from tariffs in a win for the Brazilian leader.
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Although all three countries are members of the bigger BRICS grouping of developing nations, that bloc is dominated by the agendas of China and Russia. Leaders from IBSA are more aligned on policies, Akbaruddin said.
“South Africa, which was previously happy to subsume IBSA under BRICS, is looking at a more coherent grouping,” he said.
‘Easy consensus’
South Africa proposed reviving the IBSA leaders meeting on the sidelines of the G20, according to Indian diplomats, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. South Africa is keen on smaller, action-oriented groups since BRICS has expanded and become very diverse, the people said.
Ben Joubert, a South African foreign affairs official, said in the trilateral grouping “it is quite easy to get consensus and move forward on the issues which are important to us.”
“The geoeconomic and geopolitical challenges that we have in the world are now driving the need to coordinate better and bring IBSA to the fore,” he said in an interview Sunday in Johannesburg. “We are going to put all efforts on the table to pronounce and promote our cooperation.”
The IBSA forum last hosted a leaders' meeting in South Africa in 2011. Formed in 2003, the three-country grouping primarily coordinates on issues of global governance and promotes South-South cooperation, including through joint-funding of development projects.
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“There’s a natural affinity among the three countries,” Celso Amorim, Lula’s international adviser, said.
The revival of the IBSA forum shows Trump’s actions are pushing developing countries to look at economic integration on their own.
The Johannesburg meeting is not expected to produce major deliverables, but will signal renewed cooperation among emerging economies.
India’s participation in IBSA and G20 is “significant” as nations try “de-risking and diversifying supply chains,” said Veda Vaidyanathan, a fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, a New Delhi-based independent think tank.
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