G20 SUMMIT OPENS IN LONDON
PanARMENIAN.Net
02.04.2009 11:36 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ World leaders have gathered in London’s Docklands
for key talks at the G20 financial summit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany and France will push for
major changes to the global financial system to tackle the economic
crisis. Speaking at a joint press conference with French President
Nicolas Sarkozy before the summit, Merkel reiterated her demand for
improved regulation of financial markets.
Sarkozy added that new regulations were essential for market
recovery. He said he is confident that US President Barack Obama
would join the effort for immediate reforms.
However, critics of the G20 summit point to the lack of a new
coordinated fiscal stimulus package – something Mr Brown and Mr Obama
had originally hoped would be included.
On Wednesday, Gordon Brown and Barack Obama both warned that the new
financial system to emerge from the current crisis would have to be
different from that which led to the economic meltdown of the last
year. However, both leaders expressed optimism that the crisis could
be tackled this year.
Mr Obama urged the world not to "short change the future" because of
fear over the current economic crisis.
The American President, at a joint press conference with Gordon Brown
at the Foreign Office, said people needed to plan for a recovering
economy.
G20 leaders are reported to agree on assigning $750 billion to tackle
the crisis.