AFTER years of pressure to take a greater role in global affairs, China and India have stepped up by contributing to a new IMF emergency fund – from which the US is absent.
China, India and other emerging economies made commitments to a fund during a summit in Mexico of the Group of 20, a club formed during the 2008 global economic crisis that aims to give a bigger say to developing powers.
China lent $43bn (£27bn) to a new firewall being set up by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help nations escape contagion from woes still afflicting the global economy.
The pledges made China the third largest contributor after Japan and Germany. The IMF said that commitments to the firewall now totaled $456bn (£290bn/€360bn), more than it initially anticipated.
India’s Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh pledged $10bn (£6.35bn) but called for swift progress on promised reforms at the Washington-based lender, which along with the World Bank is dominated by the West.
The US, the world's largest economy, has not committed any money to the firewall. The only other Group of 20 nations that have not made specific pledges are Argentina, Canada and Indonesia, according to the IMF.
President Barack Obama's administration has argued that Europe has the capacity to fund its own recovery.
India has faced calls to play a more active global role but, with a vastly different political economic and political system than China's, it has much better relations with the West.
"India's contribution reflects our recognition that as a responsible player in the global community, we must play our part," Dr Singh told reporters after the summit on the beach resort of Los Cabos, Mexico.
