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UK PM seeks ‘global New Deal’ with India
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown invited
India to be part of what he called “a global New Deal” - a
partnership that will overhaul a string of international
institutions and create new ones in order to ensure
globalisation benefits the world’s poor.
The partnership, he told a large gathering of members of the
ruling Labour party and prominent non-resident Indian
businessmen and bankers in Britain on Tuesday, would seek to
end poverty, illiteracy and disease “at a critical point in
the global economy” by harnessing the economic, scientific and
technological prowess of the two nations.
Just as the Marshall Plan helped the poorest countries rebuild
after the ravages of the Second World War, so there was a need
for a similar helping hand to the world’s poorest now, he
said.
Brown called for India and Britain to jointly rebuild a string
of international institutions - from the United Nations to the
Group of Eight - and even create new ones.
“We need a global New Deal between rich and poor countries
that can release millions of people from poverty, ensure every
child goes to school and eradicate preventable and avoidable
diseases from the world,” Brown said in his speech to the
Labour Friends of India.
“And just think what we can achieve - India and Britain
working together. I know there are voices in India that I know
want to do this. Let the Friends of India send out a message:
this partnership is stronger than ever. It will strengthen in
the years to come. It will not simply be a partnership for
India and Britain. It will be partnership that will benefit
the whole world.”
Made in the backdrop of growing warnings of a global
recession, Brown’s call for a “global New Deal” recalled the
New Deal measures that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
introduced in the 1930s to extend a helping hand to the
poorest Americans in the aftermath of the Great Depression.
The meeting was attended by several cabinet ministers,
including Secretary of State for Justice Jack Straw and
Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, as well as Indo-British
industrialist Swraj Paul, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock,
who currently chairs the British Council, and London Mayor Ken
Livingstone.
“What is happening at the moment is that we have a moment of
opportunity that will come and go unless we make the most of
it - a moment of opportunity to rebuild the global
institutions in a manner that will make globalisation
inclusive for all people across the world,” he said.
Reiterating Britain’s support of India’s demand for permanent
membership of the United Nations Security Council, he said, “A
Security Council without India cannot be a Security Council
reflecting the reality of the day.”
Similarly, Brown said, “A G8 that discusses the world economy
without involving India cannot be a G8 that is discussing all
the details of what needs to be done in the world economy.”
Without naming the International Monetary Fund, he said, “We
need a new early warning system for the global economy so we
can prevent the kind of credit crunch that we have had in the
last few months.
“And that’s why we need an international institution that
demands the support of the Asian continent as well as Europe
and America that can actually show it can be involved in
crisis prevention as well as crisis resolution.”
In his speech, Brown revealed that India and Britain are
already working together to consider creating a “World Bank
for the environment.”
India and Britain also needed to help beef up the ability of
the United Nations to prevent and resolve conflicts.
“I look forward to working with the Indian government and the
Indian people in a major programme of the reform of the
international institutions that will recognise the rising
importance of India in the world but recognise also that
India, Britain and other countries working together are the
only means by which we can create the type of world that gives
us peace, prosperity and sustainable development,” the British
premier said.
The Prime Minister later presented Kinnock with the Fenner
Brockway medal, named after a late Labour MP who strongly
supported India’s independence.
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