On Board PM`s Special Aircraft: The world
could be having apprehensions about China`s rise but it wants
India to grow and it is time to take advantage of the
situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.
"Unlike China`s rise, which possibly gives rise to
apprehensions, the world takes a benign view of India`s
growth. We should take advantage of that (situation) because
we don`t know how long it will last," he said.
He noted that the world is not apprehensive about India
and wants it to succeed.
Singh was talking to accompanying journalists while
returning home after his eight-day visit to the US and Brazil,
where he attended the Summits of Nuclear Security, IBSA and
BRIC.
He said India`s problems are at home and "we have to
first tackle our own problems."
The Prime Minister expressed these views when asked about
the feedback he got after meeting a host of leaders including
US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,
Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington and Brazil over the
last one week.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who accompanied the
Prime Minister at the IBSA and BRIC Summits in Brazil, said
these fora provided India an opportunity to interact with
other leading economies of the world on issues like global
financial crisis.
The Summits of IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) and BRIC
(Brazil-Russia-India-China) agreed to forge closer cooperation
for enhancing bilateral trade and on international issues like
climate change.
"We need to put in place an international order that is
equitable, fair and meets the legitimate aspirations of
developing countries," Sharma said.
He said the existing international institutions, both
political and financial, needed to be reformed so that
developing nations get a fair share.
In this regard, G-20 was emerging as the more responsive
body, the minister said.
These Summits discussed issues of concern related to
financial crisis, Sharma said.
It was felt that the global financial crisis could lead
to rise of protectionism, a prospect which the Indian Prime
Minister warned against at the meets, the minister said.
He said though the global financial crisis had shown some
recovery, it was weak and momentum needs to be maintained.
Sharma said the BRIC was emerging as a very strong
platform and had caught the world`s attention because of the
potential it has.
The forum has the capacity to take a "collective and
coherent" view on various global issues covering political and
economic aspects, he said.
The BRIC member countries have strengths, competence and
confidence, as well as potential to contribute both in the
growth of development of themselves and substantial share in
the global economy in the coming years, Sharma said.
On IBSA, the Commerce Minister said it has decided to
have IBSA CEOs` Forum to evolve ways to push trade among the
member countries.
The Forum will be put in place this year itself, before
Brazilian President Lula Da Silva demits office, Sharma said.
Lula is facing elections early next year and he is not
eligible to contest again as he has already served the maximum
term of eight years.
He said both the Summits reviewed the issues that
emerged from the last G-20 Summit and discussed these in view
of the upcoming G-20 Summit in Canada in June to evolve
strategies to be adopted at the next meet.
It was felt that financial crisis affects all countries,
particularly the developing countries, Sharma said. The
financial crisis had caused a shrinkage of 12 to 14 per cent
of global trade.
He said there are apprehensions about economic crisis
giving rise to protectionism.
The Prime Minister and other leaders of IBSA and BRIC
stressed the need for early conclusion of ongoing world trade
negotiations to put in place a multilateral architecture which
gives opportunity to developing economies.
Sharma said the economic recovery has been
stimulus-inspired and very coordinated efforts of the
governments, interventions of the governments did help in
coming out of the recession.
However, recovery itself has been weak and needs to be
carefully monitored before there is any premature withdrawal
of various stimuli and interventions by the governments, he
said.
PTI
