ASEM endorses India's call to solve global financial crisis

Beijing, Oct 25 : The Asia-Europe Summit has concluded here with a call to the Asian and European nations to safeguard international financial stability and promote world economic growth.

The two-day Summit of the 45 members Group, made a fervent appeal for a joint global action to respond to the financial crisis.

The Beijing declaration on sustainable development adopted at the end of the summit said that the group is willing to strengthen cooperation in a mutually beneficial manner and work towards a win-win situation to make positive contribution to sustainable development.

A statement by the Summit said, all countries should take firm, decisive and effective steps in a responsible and timely manner to rise to the challenge of the financial crisis. Leaders also expressed full confidence that the crisis could be overcome through concerted efforts.

The leaders had an enthusiastic and in-depth discussion on how to tackle the crisis, as well as the need to promote Asia-Europe trade and investment.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's call for a Global Monitoring Authority and need for strengthening the regulatory and supervision mechanism was widely appreciated by the leaders.

Earlier, addressing the summit the Prime Minister said for globalisation to succeed it must be fair and beneficial for the hole humanity.

Describing Sustainable development as one of the biggest challenges of the present times, Dr Singh said, a lot of cooperative work is needed to transform it into an operational strategy for development.

Dr Singh cautioned that failure on this front would lead to an unstable world. Dwelling on the Environment issues, the Prime Minister said, the international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer and additional financing since the Rio Conference.

Calling for the pursuit of innovative mechanisms for raising finance for development, Dr Singh favored a global action plan to promote food and energy security as well as environmental sustainability.

The Prime Minister said, there is also need to continuously strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism and all should join in the efforts to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism to justice.

On the sidelines of the summit, the Prime Minister met the Chinese President Hu Jintao. The two leaders reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations.

The meeting was the second between the two leaders since they met in July at Hokkaido in Japan during the G-8 summit. Dr Singh is understood to have conveyed India's gratitude to the Chinese President for helping New Delhi to get a clean waiver at the NSG and also the Safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

The Foreign Secretary Mr Shiv Shankar Menon has said,India is willing for nuclear cooperation with China as they have done in the past. China had supplied uranium in early 1990s for the Tarapur Atomic Power Plant.

In reply to a question, Menon said, India is satisfied with the progress on boundary talks with China. Our correspondent reports that bilateral relations between India and China are developing in all the areas very fast, particularly in the trade sector.

Both the countries have set a bilateral trade target of 60 billion dollars by 2010, which they aim to achieve one year ahead of the target.

The Prime Minister is returning to New Delhi tonight from Beijing after a successful 5-day visit to Japan and China.

ANI