2 Apr :Leaders of world’s top 20 rich and emerging economies, including US President, Barrack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, arrived for the G-20 summit at London’s ExCel Conference Centre.Earlier, they attended a breakfast meeting.
Obama and Manmohan Singh were one of the first to be greeted by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is hosting of the day-long G-20 Summit.The meeting, the second such high-profile gathering since November, is expected to agree to a major revamp of the world financial system as well as new coordinated measures to combat the economic downturn.
But the outcome of the summit rests with participants’ ability to bridge their differences on economic stimulus plans and reforming the global financial system.While the USA has pushed for more fiscal measures to help the economy, major European countries, notably Germany and France, remain skeptical about this and they mainly focus on tightening financial regulation and reforming the world financial system to prevent such a crisis in future.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly has threatened to walk out of the London summit if his demand for stronger financial regulation were not met.Speaking in an interview with French radio Europe 1 on Wednesday, Sarkozy reiterated that he wouldn’t want to "associate" himself with a G20 that would be concluded by "false compromises."
He said neither France nor Germany is satisfied with the current draft of the G20 statement, which he said should go even further on tightening financial regulations.
Major developing countries also support reforming the world financial system, but they insist that should have a bigger say in multilateral financial discussion and relevant policy-making process.
While the London summit brings together leaders from the top 20 industrialized and emerging economies, the city has also braced itself for a series of massive anti-globalization, anti-war and pro-environmental protests.
Massive security operation is underway in London and police leave has been cancelled while many banks and shops have been boarded up, and city workers are urged to dress down.
PM to meet Obama
Dr. Manmohan Singh will have his first meeting with US President Barack Obama today.The meeting between the two leaders is expected to take the Indo-US ties to greater heights and has created hope that this will enable finding a sustainable solution to the ailing global economy.
The two leaders are meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit.From the US side there would be six top people, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
The Indian side would include Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.
PM, Brown discuss transparency in intl banking system
Earlier, on the eve of the G-20 summit in London, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the need for transparency in international banking system with particular focus on tax havens with his British counterpart Gordon Brown.
After an hour-long meeting between the two leaders, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon said it seemed there was a "coming together of minds" on the issue of transparency and exchange of information in banking system.
Terrorism was another major issue that came up during the meeting with Dr Singh and Brown sharing concern over the spread of the menace in Pakistan and Afghanistan with the British leader maintaining his view that the origin of most of the attacks emanated from Pakistan which was a threat to his country as well as others.
Brown said something should be done to encourage Pakistani authorities to work with the international community to deal with this problem.He appreciated efforts made by India in the context of the Mumbai terror attacks in November and made it clear that terrorism should be dealt with firmly.
Dr Singh told Brown of India’s expectations from Pakistan in the context of the Mumbai attacks.