The world could be having apprehensions about China's rise but it wants India to grow and it is time to take advantage of the situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday.
"Unlike China's rise, which possibly gives rise to apprehensions, the world takes a benign view of India's growth. We should take advantage of that (situation) because we don't know how long it will last," he said.
He noted that the world is not apprehensive about India and wants it to succeed.
Singh was talking to accompanying journalists while returning home after his eight-day visit to the US and Brazil, where he attended the Summits of Nuclear Security, IBSA and BRIC.
He said India's problems are at home and "we have to first tackle our own problems."
The prime minister expressed these views when asked about the feedback he got after meeting a host of leaders including US President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington and Brazil over the last one week.
Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who accompanied the Prime Minister at the IBSA and BRIC Summits in Brazil, said these fora provided India an opportunity to interact with other leading economies of the world on issues like global financial crisis.
The Summits of IBSA (India-Brazil-South Africa) and BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) agreed to forge closer cooperation for enhancing bilateral trade and on international issues like climate change.
"We need to put in place an international order that is equitable, fair and meets the legitimate aspirations of developing countries," Sharma said.
He said the existing international institutions, both political and financial, needed to be reformed so that developing nations get a fair share.
In this regard, G-20 was emerging as the more responsive body, the minister said.
These Summits discussed issues of concern related to financial crisis, Sharma said.
It was felt that the global financial crisis could lead to rise of protectionism, a prospect which the prime minister warned against at the meets, the minister said.
He said though the global financial crisis had shown some recovery, it was weak and momentum needs to be maintained.
Sharma said the BRIC was emerging as a very strong platform and had caught the world's attention because of the potential it has.
The forum has the capacity to take a "collective and coherent" view on various global issues covering political and economic aspects, he said.
The BRIC member countries have strengths, competence and confidence, as well as potential to contribute both in the growth of development of themselves and substantial share in the global economy in the coming years, Sharma said.
On IBSA, the Commerce Minister said it has decided to have IBSA CEOs' Forum to evolve ways to push trade among the member countries.
The Forum will be put in place this year itself, before Brazilian President Lula Da Silva demits office, Sharma said.
Lula is facing elections early next year and he is not eligible to contest again as he has already served the maximum term of eight years.
He said both the Summits reviewed the issues that emerged from the last G-20 Summit and discussed these in view of the upcoming G-20 Summit in Canada in June to evolve strategies to be adopted at the next meet.
It was felt that financial crisis affects all countries, particularly the developing countries, Sharma said. The financial crisis had caused a shrinkage of 12 to 14 per cent of global trade.
He said there are apprehensions about economic crisis giving rise to protectionism.
The prime minister and other leaders of IBSA and BRIC stressed the need for early conclusion of ongoing world trade negotiations to put in place a multilateral architecture which gives opportunity to developing economies.
Sharma said the economic recovery has been stimulus-inspired and very coordinated efforts of the governments, interventions of the governments did help in coming out of the recession.
However, recovery itself has been weak and needs to be carefully monitored before there is any premature withdrawal of various stimuli and interventions by the governments, he said.
