Decision On Expansion Of G-15 Unlikely At Summit

The question of taking new members into its fold figured during informal consultations among the G-15 leaders during their retreat to the Victoria Falls on the second day of the summit.

Terrorism, the future of the group as well as some issues relating to next months WTO ministerial meeting figured during the informal parleys.

The leaders toured the rainforest area, Zimbabwes premier tourist attraction. They plan to take a boat cruise on the Zambezi river later in the day.

The G-15 leaders will reassemble today for the closing of the summit culminating in the adoption of a joint communique on the current international trading system and prospects for the promotion of trade among developing countries.

 

Potential new members include South Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Kenya and China.

The current members are Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

According to observers here, the organisation is planning to eventually become a group of 21 with seven members each from the Latin American and Caribbean, African and Asian regions.

At present, these regions are represented by seven, five and three countries respectively.

Indications of a delay in expanding the group was given when Mugabe, at his inaugural address, said more substantive work needs to be done on this important issue.

Exploratory consultations have been carried out by the G-15 troika (Argentina, Zimbabwe and Malaysia) on the expansion of G-15 as mandated by the Buenos Aires summit in 1995 in which divergent views were expressed on the matter.

Discussing the issue of terrorism, Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said in a recent interview to a local newspaper that existence of problems like this was not a comment on the sincerity of the affected developing countries but on the fact these are complex and intractable matters with international ramifications requiring global cooperation.

The G-15 leaders agreed on the need for a coordinated approach with international support to stamp out the menace of terrorism. Giving an assessment of the tone of deliberations of the summit so far, external affairs minister I K Gujral told newsmen here that G-15 was slowly finding itself assuming a bigger role in view of commonality of interests in the international trading and economic system.

The relevance of G-15 is now more than ever before in view of pressures put on the developing countries to submit to the agenda of a handful of developed countries, he said.

Gujral said all the G-15 leaders were unanimous that G-15 was a good forum to articulate the views of the developing countries on issues a like the global trading agenda.

There is a collective approach without any dissenting note to set the agenda for the developing world, Gujral said.

Deve Gowda has already exhorted the developing countries to resist attempts by developed countries to impose the mandate of the latter on the former.

A senior external affairs ministry official sought to allay apprehensions on the lack of interest among the Latin American countries in the affairs of the G-15.

Jamaica premier Percival Patterson was the lone representative at the highest level at Harare from among the seven member states from the region.

The Indian official said the Latin American leaders were busy with their scheduled regional conference and their absence in no way showed that their commitment to G-15 had been diluted.

The official said the Latin American countries were, in fact, looking at the G-15 as a platform for tapping the burgeoning Asian market.