By IANS,
New Delhi : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for Mexico and Brazil Saturday for two important summits where he would join global leaders in addressing the twin challenges of current economic meltdown and environmental degradation.’
The visit to the G-20 and the Rio+20 summits, though, comes at a time when the political climate within India has hotted up on account of selecting the candidate for the presidential election, even as the government itself has come under renewed attack for perceived policy inaction, slowing economic growth and creeping inflation.
“Absolutely not,” was the response of Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, when asked if the domestic developments will have a bearing on the meetings the prime minister attends overseas.
The first leg of the prime minister’s visit takes him to the resort town of Los Cabos in Mexico for the G-20 summit on addressing the current global financial turmoil.
There, he is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, German Chancellor Angela Merket, Russian President Vladimir Putin and new French President Francois Hollande.