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• Indian Prime Minister Inaugurates Meeting on Development and Democracy in New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Inaugurates Meeting on Development and Democracy in New Delhi

25 August 2005

The Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, inaugurated a Commonwealth Colloquium on Development and Democracy in New Delhi on 25 August 2005. The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Don McKinnon, addressed the meeting, the first in a series of regional colloquiums.

Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India

The two-day event, organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with the Administrative Staff College of India, brought together senior politicians and representatives from the corporate sector, academia and civil society from eight Commonwealth Asian countries. Senior representatives of some multilateral agencies also attended as observers.

The participants discussed ways of strengthening core democratic processes and institutions; accountability and tackling corruption; pro-poor economic and social policies; and creating a more democratic and development-friendly international system.

Mr McKinnon said before the meeting: "The Commonwealth is deeply committed to both democracy and development, which in its view are organically linked. I believe that a discussion of how democracy and pro-poor economic and social policies can be strengthened in Commonwealth Asia will be valuable not only for the countries concerned, but also for the wider world."

While in Delhi, the Secretary-General had meetings with the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, and Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath. Discussions focused on issues relevant to upcoming Commonwealth ministerial meetings, as well as the Heads of Government Meeting in Malta in November 2005.