India pitches for South-South cooperation ahead of G15 summit

Ammar Zaidi
Tehran, May 16 (PTI) As leaders of 17 nations from
Asia, Africa and Latin America gather in Iranian capital for
the G-15 Summit, India is hoping the South-South cooperation
will help address concerns and issues of relevance to the
developing countries.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is representing
India at the Summit on Monday where Presidents of Algeria,
Brazil, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Sri Lanka and Iran are
participating.
"We value the strengthening of South-South cooperation
and the important role of the G-15 process in addressing
issues which are of direct concern and relevance to the
developing countries," Krishna said here.
The summit is also being viewed as an opportunity for
Iran to drum up international support in the wake of growing
western pressure of fresh sanctions over its nuclear
programme.
Ahead of the summit, foreign ministers of Brazil and
Turkey met their Iranian counterpart this morning to discuss
the nuclear fuel swap deal, offered to Iran as an alternative,
to resolve the confrontation between Tehran and the west.
Iran's nuclear fuel exchange issue was discussed by
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, Turkish Foreign
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and their Iranian counterpart
Manouchehr Mottaki.
The Syrian president, the Qatari Emir, and Turkish
prime minister are special guests to the conference.
The Group of 15, a group of 17 developing countries
from Asia, Africa, and Latin America, was set up to foster
cooperation and provide input for other international groups.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Senegalese President
Abdoulaye Wade, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, Sri
Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Qatar's Emir Shaykh Hamad
bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan will attend the summit.
Besides India, Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria will be
represented by their foreign ministers, the Fars news agency
quoted Mehrdad Parsa, the head of the Information Committee of
the G15 summit, as saying.
It said the Malaysian finance minister and Indonesian
vice president will also attend the summit.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast
had earlier said economic cooperation between G15 members,
exploring new avenues for cooperation between the countries in
the three continents, and a review of international
developments will feature in the high-profile summit.
The Group of Fifteen (G-15) was established at a
Summit Level Group of Developing Countries in September 1989,
following the conclusion of the Ninth Non-Aligned Summit
Meeting in Belgrade.
The Group was originally founded by 15 developing
countries. While there are now 17 member countries, the
original name of the Group has been retained.
The Group was conceived as a small cohesive body of
developing countries, but at the same time, fairly
representative and having sufficient economic and political
weight and countervailing power, to meet on a regular basis at
the highest level and make authoritative pronouncements
reflecting their common standpoint on the major developments
in the world economy and international economic relations.
A long-term goal of the G-15 was to be recognised as a
logical dialogue partner of the Group of 7 (G-7, now G-8)
highly industrialised countries. PTI