Brisbane: Taking forward his promise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of black money stashed abroad during his talk with BRICS leaders here yesterday and urged the need for close coordination between countries to repatriate such unaccounted wealth.
Modi, who has flagged getting back black money as a “key priority” of his government, is likely to raise the issue during the G20 plenary today.
Modi, in his closed door address to the leaders of Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa here, said unaccounted money abroad posed both economic and security challenges and also proposed setting up of a digital hub for sharing of information.
In his departure statement Nov 11 before leaving on his tour to Myanmar, Australia and Fiji, the prime minister had said he will highlight the importance of global cooperation against black money at the G20, which kicked off here yesterday.
Besides addressing the BRICS informal gathering and the G20 Retreat, where he spoke about reform experiences, the prime minister held some first-time bilateral meetings with world leaders.
He met French President Francois Hollande, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The prime minister was a much sought after world leader at the G20, shaking hands, laughing and exchanging light conversation with other leaders, many of whom came up to him to chat.
US President Barack Obama, who has described him as a “man of action”, and Russian President Vladimir Putin chatted with Modi at a barbeque lunch served by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott ahead of the G20.
Modi and Abbott, who visited India in September, appeared to have hit it off rather well and exchanged hugs after the welcome handshake during the G20.
Modi had “emphasised a lot” on the need for close coordination to address the issue of unaccounted money during his meeting with BRICS leaders ahead of the G20, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said at a briefing later.
The informal meeting of BRICS is an event held on the sidelines of the G20.
Modi also said BRICS should set 2016 as the target for inauguration of the BRICS Bank.
“We hope to ratify the agreement by the end of the year. We would soon nominate our candidate for the post of the presidency,” he said.
He referred to the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement and said it was a very timely initiative.
“The work on the Reinsurance pool among BRICS is also a welcome one. We hope that our officials will be able to come up with a concrete proposal by the
next year.
“These measures send a strong message to the rest of the world about the efficacy of BRICS,” he said. Later, during the G20 Retreat, Modi made an intervention on the issue of reform and shared his experiences.
He was invited to speak on the subject by Abbott.
Modi stressed that reforms cannot be done by stealth, but have to be people-driven and people-centric and said there was bound to be resistance to reform, and therefore, it was essential to insulate the reform process from politics.
On the sidelines of the BRICS meeting, Modi warmly shook hands with Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, who won a tough presidential re-election last month.
He smiled and chatted with Russian President Putin who is slated to come to New Delhi next month for the annual summit, and also with Chinese President XI Jinping, who came to India in September.
He also chatted with South African President Jacob Zuma.
IANS
