NEW DELHI (AP) —India's finance minister said Tuesday that the new managing director of the International Monetary Fund should be chosen on merit and not nationality as French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde visited New Delhi to campaign for the job.
India and other developing nations have called for an end to the convention that requires the IMF head to be from Europe.
However, they have not come together with a common candidate to head the fund.
"I explained to her our position that we want selection of the managing director of the IMF, or that of the World Bank, to be on the basis of merit and capability in a transparent manner," Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after meeting with Lagarde.
He said there should be a broad consensus on who heads the fund.
Lagarde said she agreed that nationality should not "prejudice or privilege a particular candidate."
"Nationality is not the criteria. The criteria should be the merits of the candidacy," she said at a news conference.
Developing nations such as India, Brazil and China have been pushing for a bigger say in the running of the IMF and World Bank to reflect their growing economic clout.
So far Mexican Central Bank Gov. Agustin Carstens and Lagarde are the only two declared candidates to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who quit as IMF head on May 18 after he was accused of sexually attacking a New York hotel maid. He has denied the allegation.
The so-called BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — issued a joint statement late last month expressing support for "abandoning the obsolete unwritten practice" that requires the head of the IMF to be from Europe.
Mukherjee said India was in discussions with other BRICS nations to come to a consensus on a suitable candidate.
India will decide whom to back once a final list of candidates emerges, he added.
The next IMF leader is be elected June 30 by the IMF’s 24-member executive board.
The IMF voting system gives the votes of European countries and the U.S. more weight.
Asked about the struggling Greek economy, Lagarde said an additional financial aid package for the country had yet to be worked out.
"There’s no final number at this point in time," she said.
Greece received a 110 billion euro ($157 billion) bailout from other eurozone countries and the IMF last year after its financial troubles made it impossible for it to borrow money at affordable rates on the bond market.
"There has been a very strong review by what is called the troika, which is IMF, European Commission and ECB (European Central Bank), and we are working on this added package in order to secure the position of Greece and make sure that it is able to go back to the market," Lagarde added.
