PM asks BRICS to enhance coordination

Cooperation among BRICS members should aim at improving the economic well-being of their peoples. Singh said he is very happy that the third BRICS summit is taking place for the first time in Asia.

“This is a matter of great encouragement for all BRICS countries.”

“We have a substantive agenda for the summit. That includes discussions on the international situation,international economic and financial issues,development and sectoral cooperation. I look forward to reviewing the decisions we took at the last G-20 summit in Seoul,” he said.

Meanwhile,the five countries vowed to oppose trade protectionism as they agreed to coordinate their positions in the multilateral fora,including the G-20 and climate change negotiations,to uphold the interests of developing countries.

BRICS economic and trade ministers,who met here,noted that the recent turmoil in Middle East and North Africa as well as the earthquake and tsunami in Japan had brought about uncertainties to the world economic development and agreed to further strengthen cooperation among themselves by expanding mutual trade and investment. The ministers committed to “oppose trade protectionism in all its forms,” said a joint press release issued after the meeting attended by commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma.

In this regard,they decided to establish a contact group entrusted with the task of proposing an institutional framework and concrete measures to expand economic cooperation among BRICS and with other developing countries,within the South-South perspective,it said.

Addressing the media,Sharma said it was imperative for the BRICS countries to coordinate their positions considering the fact that the recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa had “severely impacted” the global oil prices.

He said the five countries would be coordinating their synergies on the reforms of global institutions like IMF and World Bank besides the G-20 and WTO. Sharma pointed out that the BRICS countries were contributing up to 25 per cent to the global GDP and had the potential to grow more.

The trade ministers of the five nations also warned that global trade talks were at risk of collapsing but that they were willing to resume negotiations based on 2008 agreements.

“The delicate balance of trade-offs achieved over 10 years of negotiations and contained in the draft July 2008 texts risks being upset,” they said. The group favours a continuation of the Doha round on the basis of a preliminary pact that brought the talks nearly to a final deal in 2008 but rejected demands that developing nations need to make more concessions.