Singh meets Brown; discusses financial crisis, climate change

V S Chandrasekar

L'Aquila (Italy), Jul 8 (PTI) India's Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh on Wednesday met his British counterpart Gordon
Brown and discussed the current global economic downturn and
restructuring of the international financial architecture as
well as the issue of climate change.

The meeting, which lasted 45 minutes on the sidelines
of the G-8 summit here, gave the two leaders an opportunity
to exchange views and perspectives on steps for quick
recovery of the global economy against the backdrop of the
current downturn.

Briefing reporters on the meeting, the second in three
months after their earlier engagement this year in London in
April, an official spokesman said it also touched on the
issue of restructuring of the global financial architecture.

On climate change, the two leaders reflected on taking up
joint development of green technology projects.

Singh gave Brown his perspectives on India's national
action plan on climate change and provided him a copy of it.
India's questions and answers preparatory to Copenhagen summit
were also mentioned.

The Prime Minister invited Brown to participate in a
conference on climate change in Delhi in October this year
where technology transfer and development would be discussed.

After a one-on-one meeting, Singh was joined in the
discussions by India's National Security Adviser M K
Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Prime
Minister's Special Envoy on Climate Change Shyam Saran.

The Indo-UK relationship is broadbased and the two
countries have a strategic partnership which is multifaceted
with economic and trade dimensions. The two countries
cooperate in counter-terrorism and science and technology,
HRD and various other areas.

The UK also supports India's bid for a permanent
membership of an expanded UN Security Council. The two
countries also have consultations at the highest level with
annual summits.

India and Britain have emerged as the third largest
investors in each other's country. The two-way trade between
the two countries amounted to 9 billion pounds apart from 4
billion pounds in services. The trade target for next year has
been pegged at 10 billion pounds. PTI VSC
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