New Delhi, September 22
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves here tomorrow for Pittsburgh (United States) to take part in the G-20 summit at which India is expected to call for reforms of global financial institutions and voice its strong opposition to protectionism.
The September 24-25 summit, convened by US President Barack Obama, will be attended by the leaders of major developed nations as well as emerging economies to discuss steps taken so far to deal with the worst global economic crisis and what more needs to be done in the coming months to quicken the process of recovery.
The high-level Indian delegation to the summit includes Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who is also the G-20 Sherpa from India, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and other senior officials.
On the margins of the summit, the Prime Minister is expected to hold bilateral meetings with a number of world leaders. A ‘pull-aside’ meeting with President Obama is also a possibility.
According to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, financial market reforms would be the central issue of the summit and India would like to play a pro-active role on the issue.
She said: “The country’s growth rate has been brought down to the range of 6-7 per cent, and now we look forward to coordinating efforts, raising our growth rates and restoring trade and investment.’’
The G-20 leaders are also likely to discuss at length issues like stimulus and growth measures while planning exit strategies with caution, reforms of the international financial institutions, mobilising resources for the poor developing countries and review of the regulatory framework.
The summit leaders are also likely to call for a balanced and successful outcome of the climate change negotiations in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Copenhagen in December.
The summit, third of its kind since the financial crisis erupted last September, will review implementation of the measures decided at the previous summits - Washington (2008) and London (April, 2009) - where it was decided to pump in 1.1 trillion US dollars for revival of the emerging market economies.
