25 Oct :Seeking strengthening of global cooperation to combat terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said there cannot be sustainable development without peace.
In his address to the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Summit, Prime Minister said that terrorism, extremism and intolerance threatens our social cohesion.
Highlighting India’s quest for enhancing its share of atomic power, he said, "Greater effort is needed to promote clean and renewable sources of energy, including nuclear energy."
He also said that sustainable development is among the biggest challenges faced by the world and a lot of cooperative work is needed to transform it from a mere buzz word to an operational strategy for development.
Dwelling on climate change, Singh said the issue threatened the environment as well as development.
He lamented that progress on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol has been slow.
He noted that unfortunately, the international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer and additional financing since the Rio Conference.
Earlier, Dr Manmohan Singh held a separate meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Making an impressive debut at the seventh Asia-Europe Meeting which formally admitted India into its fold, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the current international financial crisis could be attributed to three failures.
Singh blamed "failure" of international surveillance, supervision and regulatory mechanisms for the current global financial crisis. He also sought immediate "coordinated action" to restore confidence and "de-clog" the credit market.
"Without peace there can be no sustainable development. Terrorism, extremism, and intolerance threaten our social cohesion," Singh said in his address to the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)
Summit in Beijing.
"We need to continuously strengthen international cooperation to combat terrorism. We must bring perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of terrorism to justice," he said at the concluding day of the two-day summit, also attended by Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani as well as over 40 other world leaders.
"We know that Asia is home to the largest concentration of the world’s poor. Poverty eradication at this scale requires a collaborative global effort to promote development and in particular to create job opportunities. If we fail, we will continue to live in a world of instability and conflict," Singh, who was the first to speak at one of the main sessions, said.
"The development strategies that we adopt have to result in a fair, equitable and balanced distribution of the economic dividend," the Prime Minister said.
At the same time, he said, it must also preserve and protect the environment.
"We therefore need to put in place a global action plan to promote both food and energy security for managing the challenges of both accelerated growth and its environmental sustainability," Singh said.
He noted that unfortunately, the international community has not lived up to its commitments for technology transfer and additional financing since the Rio Conference.
Dwelling on climate change, Singh said the issue threatened the environment and as well as development.
"The challenge ahead is to put in place development strategies which improve living standards, create opportunities for job creation and are also environment friendly," Singh said.
"Thus, common but differentiated responsibility should be the cardinal principle of negotiations to find practical and pragmatic solutions within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change," Singh said, advocating India’s stance on the
crucial subject.
He lamented that progress on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol has been slow.
Singh pointed out that emissions of developed countries have actually increased by 2.6 per cent from 2000 to 2005.
The Prime Minister said the principle of convergence of per-capita emissions of developing countries with advanced developed countries is catching the imagination of the international community.
Singh also underscored that the dependence on fossil fuels was a "cause of many problems."
"Greater effort is needed to promote clean and renewable sources of energy, including nuclear energy," he said, highlighting India’s quest for enhancing its share of atomic power.
The world, therefore, needs a new compact plan to increase efficiency in the use of available energy resources, he said.
Singh, who had made an intervention on Friday on the global financial turmoil, did not touch the issue today in his address.
In his power-packed intervention, Singh had blamed three "failures" of international surveillance, supervision and regulatory mechanisms for the global financial crisis and sought immediate "coordinated action" to restore confidence and "de-clog" the credit market.
China for far-sighted strategic relations with India
China today underlined the need for a "far-sighted and strategic" relations with India, saying the two Asian nations should properly address each other’s concerns.
Chinese President Hu Jintao, who discussed a gamut of bilateral issues with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting on the sidelines of the seventh Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) summit, stressed on need for bilateral ties with far-sighted and and long-term perspective.
Hu said China and India were populous countries facing the common task of improving their economy and people’s living standard, and they shared the common interests in coping with the financial crisis, climate change, energy resources and food security.
"Both China and India are major developing nations in Asia, and developing good-neighbourly relations had long been Chinese government’s consistent policy," he told Singh.
The two nations also agreed to collaborate on international and regional issues, as also to deal with the ongoing financial crisis.
Singh, who arrived in Beijing on Thursday after a three-day visit to Japan, and Hu met on the sidelines of the seventh Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) summit.
The Prime Minister’s meeting with Hu, also General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China, was the second high-level contact between the leadership of India and China in a month.
Singh earlier had a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao on 24th September on the margins of the UN General Assembly session in New York.
New Delhi acknowledges that the boundary problem is "complex" and cannot be resolved overnight.
"There is no simple technical fix to this problem," said Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon before the meeting of the two leaders.
The Prime Minister, who signed a landmark security pact with his Japanese counterpart Taro Aso on the first leg of his two nation visit, had in Tokyo made it clear the agreement was not directed against China.
"I have explained on several occasions both in India as well as in China and abroad that I sincerely believe that there is no competition between India and China," Singh had said in Tokyo on Wednesday.