Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend three multilateral summits this month, dealing with not only different regions but agendas too.
On Wednesday, Singh accompanied by senior officials heads for Cannes for the sixth G20 Summit, where the focus of the leaders is expected to be on the euro zone crisis.
According to officials in the ministry of external affairs (MEA), ?the two-day summit from Novermber 3 is also expected to take stock of the progress on other matters discussed earlier, like mutual assessment of the fiscal policies of member nations and reforms at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund”.
Like in the past five summits held in Washington, London, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Seoul, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will be the PM’s chief interlocutor during the meeting.
After his return on November 9, the PM will leave for Maldives for the 17th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc). ?Building Bridges? will be the core theme for the two-day eight-nation meet, where India will be pitching for greater economic integration in South Asia and closer collaboration on security issues.
A number of bilateral meetings are being worked out during the summit, including the one between Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Geelani. The proposed meeting would provide fresh impetus to the renewed peace efforts between the two countries with a series of official-level talks.
A week later, the PM will take off for Bali in Indonesia, venue of the 18-nation East Asia Summit and India-Asean summit. The summit comes at a time when there is a growing unease in the region over China’s assertive postures in the South China Sea.
Interestingly, both the US and Russia will formally participate in the two-day East Asia Summit from November 18 for the first time, thus raising the profile of the regional body.