Indian P.M. to attend A.S.E.M. Summit for first time

Beijing, Oct 23 (PTI) India would be making its debut at the highest level at the Asia-Europe (A.S.E.M.) Summit here when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attends the meeting set to be dominated by the raging global economic turmoil.

After winding up his three-day official visit to Japan, Singh would be here to attend the Seventh A.S.E.M. meeting starting tomorrow and being attended by a host of other world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On the sidelines of the Summit, Singh would have meetings with Merkel, Chinese President Hu Jintao, President of Mongolia Nambaryn Enkhbayar, President of Bulgaria Georgi Parvarov, besides Italian and Vietnamese Prime Ministers Romano Prodi and Nguyen Tan Dung in a bid to promote bilateral ties and exchange views on issues of common interests.

There is no official word yet as to whether Singh would
formally meet Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who
is also here to attend the Summit.

In Tokyo, Singh noted that the international financial
crisis has revealed the extraordinary vulnerability of the
global financial system even in the industrialised world.

"The crisis has choked credit flows and predictably
spilled over to the stock market. We have to prevent the
liquidity crisis from becoming a crisis of confidence in the
international monetary and financial system," he said.

India would be attending this Summit at the Head of
Government level for the first time.

In May 2007, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee
had attended the Ministerial meeting of the A.S.E.M. in
Hamburg, Germany. But this is the first time the country is
participating at the Summit level.

"Developing countries like India are also affected by the
crisis and have to be part of the solution. We cannot afford
to risk the gains we have made in the last few years. Nor do
we wish to remain vulnerable to infirmities in international
surveillance, supervision and regulatory mechanisms in the
future," Singh said.

A.S.E.M. is basically a grouping of 27 European Union
Members, 10 A.S.E.A.N. members, the three North-East Asian
members - China, Japan and South Korea.

Apart from India, Pakistan, Mongolia and the A.S.E.A.N.
Secretariat are expected to participate in the Beijing Summit
for the first time, just as Bulgaria and Romania are doing so
from the European Union's side.

The theme this time is 'Vision and Action – Towards a
Win-Win Solution'.

At the Summit the leaders will focus their discussions on
the political, economic, social and cultural issues, including
the those related to sustainable development.

"It will provide a very good opportunity for us to
exchange views on a variety of topics including, of course,
the present international financial situation," N. Ravi,
Secretary (East) of the External Affairs Ministry said.

The Summit would issue a Chairman's statement expounding
the stances of Asia and Europe on major international and
regional issues.

The international financial situation would be discussed
amongst the leaders, Ravi said, adding that other topics like
energy, climate change and food security would figure
prominently.

One of the objectives of the Summit is to help achieve
consensus and promote exchanges and cooperation between the
two regions. PTI