New Delhi, Jan 31: Defence Minister George Fernandes left here for Johannesburg on a six-day visit to South Africa and to attend a meeting of the India-Brazil-South Africa forum there.
During the meeting, Fernandes is slated to exchange views on military cooperation with South African Defence Minister Le Kota and Brazilian Defence Minister Jose Viegas Filho.
The trilateral forum was set up last year in Brasilia where it was also agreed to establish a parallel joint commission with the respective foreign ministers as focal points to coordinate their positions on issues of mutual interest. The first meeting of the joint commission is scheduled for March in New Delhi.
During his South Africa sojourn, Fernandes is also slated to go to Cape Town and take the opportunity to visit some of the defence industries there including Som Chem company which makes bimodular charges for field guns. Significantly, an ordnance factory, with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore, for the manufacture of bimodular charges is being set up at Rajgir in Nalanda district of Bihar.
Bureau Report
