India emerges Third World leader at Cancun: BJP

The Bharatiya Janata Party said on Tuesday by forging two separate and influential alliances, on agricultural subsidies and Singapore issues, at the WTO summit in Cancun, India had emerged as the leader of the developing countries.

Minister of Law and Commerce Arun Jaitley's tough and skilful negotiating stance enabled India to emerge as the leader of the developing countries, party President M Venkaiah Naidu said in a statement in New Delhi.

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He said the party records with profound appreciation the resolute defence of national interests by Jaitley and that India has become the voice of the developing world and the entire country is happy about the way in which the Indian point of view has been put forth.

"In line with the nationalist policies of the National Democratic Alliance government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India refused to allow some developed countries to bulldoze a regressive agricultural agenda," Naidu said.

"The NDA government has successfully upheld the interests of Indian farmers," Naidu said.

The BJP chief reiterated the view that globalisation can only be achieved if the principles of fair trade are followed by the developed countries.

"The Cancun summit has shown that WTO must address the key issues of discriminatory policies and human suffering. India will take a lead in ensuring this happens," he said.