India is positively and proactively engaged in the ongoing global trade talks, according to Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma. ?And, the way forward is the informal ministerial meeting on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos,? said Mr. Sharma in a recent conversation with The Hindu here. The ministerial meeting will take place in Davos on January 29. The preparatory official-level meetings concluded in Geneva on January 25.
?All the principal interlocutors including India will be there in Davos. India is working with sincerity along with its coalition partners: Brazil and South Africa and also China which is a major country.... There cannot be country-specific solutions. I don't think that we believe in taking a step backward.?
Asked whether the imminent Davos meeting might prove a game-changer, he said the end-game would begin only after the negotiators, now assembled in Geneva, could finalise all the drafts by end-February or early March as now planned. ?We have always demonstrated leadership and vision in a difficult situation. But we have to be correct: we cannot now remove the focus from the development agenda that should be there intact.?
Mr. Sharma emphasised that ?settled matters need not be reopened ... unravelling the Doha process and there is a strong consensus in favour of [India's] approach that the remaining gaps have to be closed.?
The Minister did not, however, wish to comment on the present ?state of play'. At the same time, India was looking for ?a realistic assessment' at the Davos ministerial meeting on January 29.
Mr. Sharma was here to inaugurate ?The India Show'. Singapore Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang and Chairman of the Singapore-based Institute of South Asian Studies, Gopinath Pillai, commended the initiative. India's High Commissioner T. C. A. Raghavan outlined the objectives of the event.
