New Delhi: Ahead of the G-20 Summit in Toronto, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said it was necessary for the global economy to continue to recover in a stable and predictable manner without succumbing to protectionist tendencies.
"We need investment and capital flows, as well as an open and rule based trading system that does not succumb to protectionist tendencies," Singh said in a statement before his departure for the two-day Summit from tomorrow during which he will also have talks with US President Barack Obama and other leaders.
Cautioning that the recovery of the global economy was "still fragile and uneven" with new "worrying signs emerging in the Euro zone", Singh said the challenge for the Toronto Summit will be three-fold.
These challenges would be to ensure that global economic recovery is durable, balanced and sustainable; to calibrate exit strategies in the light of growing concerns over expansionary fiscal policies; and to focus on medium and long-term structural issues relating to governance issues, he said.
"As the Indian economy grows and further integrates with the international system, we have an increasingly direct stake in all these matters," he said, adding to meet "our ambitious development targets it is necessary that the global economy continue to recover in a stable and predictable manner."
Singh said the coordinated policy actions taken by the G-20 countries since November 2008 have not only helped to prevent a crisis of the type the world saw in the 1930s but also contributed to global economic recovery.
"This is a sign of the G-20's success. At the same time, we have to be conscious that the recovery is still fragile and uneven. New worrying signs have emerged in the Euro zone," he said.
The Prime Minister said the Summit is expected to deliberate on a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
India would project its expectations from the global economic and financial system, and the kind of global growth processes that it seeks. "We will highlight the importance of development issues in the future work of the G20," he said.
On the margins of the Summit, Singh would hold separate meetings with Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
He would hold bilateral talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper when the two sides are expected to sign a deal providing for cooperation in the field of civil nuclear energy, paving the way for supply of uranium and cooperation in research, development, waste management and radiation safety.
"Our relations with Canada are becoming broad based and there is a mutual desire on both sides to impart fresh vigour and vitality to them. India and Canada share the same values and there are many opportunities for us to contribute to each other's welfare and prosperity," Singh said.
The Summit which will review the current status of the global economic recovery and discuss a tax to fund future bail out of banks, a proposal India is opposed to.
Singh, who heads a high-power Indian delegation, is expected to place on record India's opposition to such a banking transaction levy on the ground that Indian banks did well during the 2008 financial crisis sparked by weak regulation norms in developed countries.
Notwithstanding the rejection of the tax idea at the G-20 finance ministers meeting in Busan in Seoul earlier this month, countries like the US, France and Germany, favour such a levy.
They are expected to pursue their demand in Toronto while the new British government has announced imposition of a banking levy in its first budget.
Besides India, countries like hosts Canada, Japan and Brazil have their reservations on such tax-funded bailouts.
Singh's delegation includes Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, his sherpa in the summit, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla and other officials.
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