India Urges G-15 Countries To Work For A Consensus

India has advocated a consensus among the G-15 countries on contentious issues like a new round of WTO negotiations and the multilateral agreement on investment.

External affairs minister Salim Sherwani told his G-15 counterparts at a meeting in a run-up to todays summit of the grouping that the whole idea is to build consensus, not to avoid dissonance where it exists.

Friendly messages should be sent to industrialised nations that G-15 wanted in a systematic and policy terms to meet its legitimate needs of financial resources, technology and markets and to contribute to the global concerns of energy and environment, he said. The Indian stand on various issues including market excess, technology and finance for developments would be outlined at the summit by vice-president Krishan Kant.

 

Currency turmoil in South-East Asia, efforts to enhance North-South cooperation and various provisions of international trade fora like WTO which go against the interests of developing countries are likely to dominate the deliberations of G-15 leaders during their three-day summit.

The currency problem will top the agenda and a separate statement by G-15 leaders will include proposals on how to manage the problem, Malaysian foreign minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

The statement on the basis of consensus would present the groups collective expression on the volatility in the financial and capital markets in South-East Asia. It is no longer the problem of South-East Asia. It is a problem also experienced by other countries, he told newspersons, adding that there were lessons to be learned from what has happened in Indonesia, Malaysia and some other countries.

Badawi said the G-15, in an effort to enhance North-South dialogue, may consider meetings with G-7 industrialised nations if the issue warrants such a contact.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who will chair the summit, had earlier this year proposed a dialogue between the G-15 and G-7 to enhance economic cooperation. The joint communique will address issues such as action to be taken by the group for more constructive dialogue with industrialised nations, measures to coordinate policies and action at the global level and new avenues for the formulation and implementation of programmes of south-south cooperation.