The French Finance Minister, Ms Christine Lagarde, on Tuesday asserted that she was not visiting New Delhi to seek either assurance or reassurance of support from India, but to present her candidacy and to listen to the concerns of an important emerging market economy like India.
“I did not seek any assurance. I think it will be premature or arrogant on my part to expect any assurance. I received a warm welcome and very friendly hospitality here today,” Ms Lagarde, who is the frontrunner for the IMF chief's post, told a press conference here.
This remark came even as India remained non-committal on supporting her bid for the top IMF job. Earlier in the day, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, told reporters that India had not given any assurance to his French counterpart on support for her candidature to the post of IMF's Managing Director.
“There is no assurance. We are working on a consensus. We want the selection of managing director of IMF or that of World Bank be on the basis of merit, competence and not based on any particular nationality. For these offices, there should be a broad consensus,” Mr Mukherjee said.
On Tuesday, Ms Lagarde met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh; the Union Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee; and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
India is Ms Lagarde's latest leg of world tour to drum up support for her candidacy. She flies to China on Tuesday night.
Brics candidate
Meanwhile, Mr Mukherjee said that it was difficult to say whether or not a consensus would emerge on a BRICS candidate for the next chief at IMF.
“It would be difficult to say at this moment because there was divergence of views in respect of South African candidature. So it is not possible to say whether there will be a common candidate or not,” he said.
Countries have until this week end to nominate candidate for the top IMF job. The IMF is expected to make a choice by end June.