Time To Listen To Us

Time To Listen To Us, Say S.Africa, Brazil and India

Wed 15 Oct 2008, 8:11 GMT
Courtesy Of Reuters Africa

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The leaders of South Africa, Brazil and India said on Wednesday the global credit crisis showed the need for south-south solidarity and reform of institutions like the United Nations to reflect their growing economic clout.

All three countries have felt the pinch of a crisis that many blame on the mistakes and greed of wealthier Western nations.

"We run the risk of being victims of a financial crisis generated by rich countries. This is unjust," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told the summit of the three countries in New Delhi.

"It is inadmissible that we'll pay for the irresponsibility of speculators that transformed the world into a gigantic casino. At the same time they gave us lessons on how we should govern our countries."

"Our countries should participate more directly in international coordination to confront the financial crisis."

Countries like Brazil and India, peers in the so-called BRIC group of elite emerging markets, have for years campaigned for more influence on global diplomatic and financial policies.

This crisis has given more weight to their argument, they say, that major emerging markets need more seats in the U.N. Security Council or a role at G-8 summits.

"We need more than ever before a renewed effort to reform the institutions of international governance, whether it is the United Nations or the G-8," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the summit.

"Our voice on how to manage this crisis in a way that does not jeopardise our development priorities needs to be heard in international councils."

Brazil, for example, has seen its ambitions to become a global economic heavyweight jeopardised by the crisis, which has hit its once strongly performing stocks and currency markets.

India has been forced to inject liquidity into its banking system, and there are fears that the Asian giant's record growth rates could suffer.

"The pillars of stability ... potentially lie in the south," said South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.

At the same summit on Tuesday, India and Brazil said a prompt breakthrough in global trade talks would send a clear signal about the political will of governments to collectively meet risks to the world economy from the financial crisis.

India and Brazil are key members of the Group of 20 nations, and have been leading the developing countries charge at the trade talks.

But differences between the United States and developing country food exporters on the one hand and India and other big developing country importers on the other torpedoed talks among trade ministers two months ago.

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