India pitches for South-South cooperation ahead of G15 summit

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is representing India at the Summit tomorrow 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.