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The Commonwealth Secretary General, Mr. Don McKinnon, who is presently on an official visit to India to participate in the Commonwealth Regional Colloquium on Democracy and Development, called on Shri Kamal Nath, Minister of Commerce & Industry, here this evening. Mr. McKinnon discussed with the Minister issues relating to the ongoing Doha Development Agenda and apprised him of the role of the Commonwealth in generating consensus on international trade matters, especially the initiatives taken by the Commonwealth to promote the interests of member countries in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations and capacity building.
Mr. McKinnon said the Commonwealth had launched a new initiative to put development back into the WTO trade talks. In 2004, Commonwealth sent a Commonwealth Ministerial group to a number of capitals to help put the Doha talks back on track after the breakdown in Cancun. At Hong Kong later this year, a meeting of Commonwealth Trade Ministers has been scheduled to drive forward development agenda and to ensure development dividends from the Round, he said. Further, Foreign Ministers meeting in New York (16 September 2005) and Commonwealth leaders at Valetta CHOGM (25-27 November 2005) will discuss trade issues in the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting in December in the context of the Doha Development Agenda.
The Lao Deputy Prime Minister and President of the Planning and Cooperation Committee, Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith, also called on Shri Kamal Nath and discussed bilateral trade matters.
Shri Kamal Nath thanked Lao PDR for the pivotal role it played in ensuring India’s membership to the first East Asia Summit which was formalised at the 38th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting held in Vientiane in July 2005 and stressed the need to strengthen economic and commercial ties between India and Lao PDR. At present, India’s trade with Lao is very small, amounting to only 0.01% of total Lao imports. There is considerable scope for Indian investments in Lao especially in mining, power, food processing, wood and timber industry, pharmaceuticals, light engineering, tourism and IT. Shri Kamal Nath expressed the hope that the visit of Dr. Sisoulith would contribute towards greater trade and economic activity between India and Lao and sought continued support of Lao at the UN General Assembly for India’s claim to permanent membership of an expanded UN Security Council (UNSC).
SB/MRS
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