India asks developed nations to shun protectionism

As leaders of the world's richest and influential developing countries prepared to meet in London on Thursday on how to fix the global economy, India today asked industrialised nations to shun protectionism in trade, a view strongly endorsed by host Britain.

Articulating India's position before he left for London for the second G-20 summit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was important for the grouping to take "credible decisions" to help halt and reverse the current slowdown and instill a sense of confidence in the world economy.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also stressed that the G-20 leaders must give "oxygen of confidence" to the global economy.

"There are some issues which require particular focus such as the need to ensure the adequate flow of finances to the developing countries to overcome the reversal of international capital flows... The need to avoid protectionism in trade of both goods and services," said Singh, who is making his first overseas trip after the coronary by-pass surgery he underwent on January 24, in a pre-departure statement in New Delhi.

Endorsing India's views against protectionism, British Prime Minister Gordown Brown said the current global crisis should not not make countries "retreat into the dangerous protectionism which in the end protects no one".

Brown, a former Chancellor of Britain, said the mistakes of the 1930s should be avoided. "Never return to protectionism and isolationism of the past," he said at a welcome ceremony for Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.