India consults 'outreach countries'
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon attended a preparatory meeting in this regard here.
Besides India, top officials from host China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa participated in the meeting, a multilateral consultation on economic and trade issues and climate change, among others, that the major developing nations plan to take up at the G-8 meeting to be held at Japan's northern island of Hokkaido Tayako.
The "outreach countries" are invited when the G-8, an exclusive club of rich nations comprising the US, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia, meets.The previous G-8 meeting was held in Germany which would pass on the Presidency to Japan at the upcoming summit.