MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Main emerging economies demand greater say in global affairs

The world's five main emerging economies called Thursday for a greater say in the global decision-making process. The leaders of India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa issued the call at a meeting to coordinate their positions ahead of Friday's session with the Group of Eight (G8) in the German resort of Heiligendamm.

A statement released after the talks in a Berlin hotel said the five nations wanted to step up their efforts to ensure their voice is heard in decisions that affect the world's population. They also planned to meet at regular intervals to discuss issues of common interest such as climate change, energy security and development, the statement said. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who organized the gathering, welcomed Thursday's compromise on climate change by G8 countries Germany, France, Italy, Britain, the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia. But he said he would have prepared something more concrete in the declaration, which indicated G8 would give serious consideration to halving global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The five leaders held a series of bilateral meetings earlier on Thursday to fine-tune their views ahead of the meeting with the G8 on the Baltic coast. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed that efforts to halt climate change should not put developing economies at a disadvantage, sources close to the talks said. The two sides felt that industrial countries were the main perpetrators of climate change and are the ones that should carry the main burden in reversing it, they said. Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said India believes the issue of setting targets to curb harmful greenhouse gas emissions should be conducted under the aegis of the United Nations. In addition to meeting the Chinese leader, the Indian prime minister also held talks with Calderon, Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Aduda and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Calderon said he wanted to use the G8 summit to deepen Mexico's political and economic ties 'with areas of interest different from the United States' and to try and attract European investment.