India can help in Eurozone crisis: Montek

[1]

India has not received any request from the G20 or from individual countries for help in resolving the Eurozone crisis but is ready to do whatever needs to be done, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said ahead of the G20 summit here.

"So far there is no bilateral request. But we are ready to help. We cannot afford the crisis spilling over to the world at large. But let me also add, India, so far, is not affected," Ahluwalia, a member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's delegation that is here for the summit, said.

The Indian offer was first enunciated by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"Let them make a credible assessment of the solvency issue, try to sort out those problems, and thereafter supplementary financing could be considered," Mukherjee told reporters.

At this G20 summit, the sixth since the first in 2008 at Washington, the focus has shifted to the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

Ahead of the summit, Manmohan Singh kicks off his engagements with a meeting with the leaderships of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa, collectively called the BRICS nations along with India, to firm up their joint position for the G20 summit.

Besides Manmohan Singh, the BRICS leaders here for G20 are Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff, Russian President Dimitri Madvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao, and South African President Jacob Zuma.

"Developing economies such as India need a conducive global economic environment to address the vast challenges they face," the prime minister had said on Tuesday, emphasising that poor and emerging economies cannot be denied funds for development.

"In an increasingly interdependent world, we have to be wary of contagion effects and the import of inflationary pressures in our economy," he had said on Tuesday.

During the two-day summit, the prime minister is also expected to hold meetings with his host and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard. He returns to New Delhi on early Saturday.

The G20, originally formed at the level of finance ministers and central bank governors in 1999 after the East Asian economic crisis, assumed significance after its elevation to a summit-level forum in 2008, following the global financial crisis.

Like in the past five summits held in Washington, London, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Seoul, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will be the prime minister's sherpa, or chief interlocutor, during the meeting.

Besides India and host France, the G20 comprises Brazil, the US, Canada, China, Argentina, Australia, South Korea, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, Britain and the European Union.

These members account for 80 percent of the global GDP and two-thirds of the world population. The prime minister returns home on Saturday morning.