Gordon Brown and Barack Obama G20 recession pledge
- 00:01:08
- ITN
Gordon Brown and Barack Obama G20 recession pledge
Prime Minister Gordon Brown insists Britain and the US are united in their determination to tackle the "unprecedented" economic crisis. After nearly two hours of talks with President Barack Obama, Mr Brown praised his "energy and dynamism" at a joint press conference. "President Obama and I are agreed about the significance of this week's G20 meeting that the world is coming together to act in the face of unprecedented global financial times," he said. Mr Brown said the "first duty" of the world leaders is to the ordinary people suffering as a result of the global economic crisis and anxious about their jobs, their mortgages and their futures. After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, it was 15 years before the leaders of the world got together to build a new global framework to restore growth and prosperity, he said. By contrast, the summit in London's Docklands is happening within a matter of months of the start of the current crisis. Mr Brown said: "We are co-operating to shorten the recession and we are working together to protect and save jobs." He said the summit should not produce merely a "lowest common denominator" solution, adding: "We must stand united in our determination to do whatever is necessary. "This is an unprecedented economic crisis. People have lost their homes, their jobs and in some cases their hope. And President Obama and I are agreed that the actions we take are global solutions to global problems." Mr Brown is also holding talks at Number 10 with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso as he seeks to finalise the details of a communique which has been the subject of intensive behind-the scenes negotiation over the last few weeks. Over recent days, Downing Street has been playing down expectations of a conclusive anti-recession package emerging from the summit, though Mr Brown remains hopeful of agreement on a range of measures to restore growth and reform the international banking system. European governments are holding firm against further stimulus, arguing that they have already poured £370 billion - soon to rise to £465 billion - into tax cuts and spending programmes in response to the recession. Europe's more generous welfare systems automatically force EU state spending up during a downturn to a greater extent than in the US, they point out. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel are instead putting emphasis on a tougher system of international financial regulation to replace the light-touch "Anglo-Saxon" model which has dominated recent decades. French finance minister Christine Lagarde hinted that Mr Sarkozy may walk away from the summit if his preference for a global financial regulator is rejected, saying he would not sign any agreement if he felt "the deliverables are not there". And her German counterpart Peer Steinbrueck said he would be "very reluctant and hesitating" to sign up to any deal which committed Berlin to further fiscal stimulus. "We must be very much aware of what it means for our public debt and as burdens for upcoming generations," he said.
ITN | April 1, 2009
