BRICS wants IMF to save euro zone China stand still not clear

Ahead of a mini euro zone meeting preceding the G20 Cannes summit starting on Thursday, the group of five emerging markets huddled together to convene another virtual conclave within the two-day event. Leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) met here to chalk out a common stand on major issues facing the world, including the euro zone debt crisis.

A briefing note said the leaders expressed support for a greater role of the International Monetary Fund in efforts to help resolve the euro zone sovereign debt crisis. It is still not clear though whether China, the biggest suitor for the Europeans among BRICS, would prefer to get some sweetners through a bilateral deal with the crisis-hit Europe.

It is not in the open whether India has a separate Chinese deal on its mind when it says it prefers an IMF route to the bilateral one. On its part, the Planning Commission said it has not objected to bilateral assistance. “Our understanding is that the Chinese have also said the same thing,” revealed its deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, when asked to comment on Beijing’s stand. Later, though, Ahluwalia, India’s G20 sherpa, added that a global financial mechanism could not be worked out with “accidental bilateral acts of generosity”.

The meeting called at the initiative of the Brazilian president, Dilam Rousseff, was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the presidents of Russia (Dmitry Medvedev), China (Hu Jintao) and South Africa (Jacob Zuma). Singh invited the leaders to India, which is hosting the next BRICS summit on March 29 next year.

The leaders agreed that the euro zone sovereign debt crisis was a matter of serious concern for the global economy — and that it had caused fresh instability and volatility in markets after the 2008 economic crisis.

It was agreed that the only way to emerge from this crisis was to ensure rapid economic growth in a sustained and balanced manner, and on a global basis.

They expressed support to Europe’s efforts to find an early solution to the crisis, but underlined that it was for the the European Union and the euro zone countries to find a solution.