Brown and Obama in joint press conference
- 00:02:10
- ITN
Brown and Obama in joint press conference
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has held talks with President Barack Obama at the White House. The economy dominated their hour-long conversation, with both men agreeing that improvements were needed to the regulation of the global banking system. Mr Brown is the first European head of state to meet the new leader in Washington. At a press conference following the talks, Mr Obama reaffirmed his belief in the special relationship between Britain and the US. Sitting alongside Mr Brown in the Oval Office, Mr Obama said Britain's friendship to the US in Iraq and Afghanistan would not be forgotten. And he added: "Great Britain is one of our closest and strongest allies and there is a link and bond there that will not break." Mr Brown has also been invited to address a joint session of Congress - only the fifth British premier to make such a speech. The meeting, followed by a working lunch, comes ahead of the G20 summit of leading economies being hosted in London by Mr Brown on April 2, when he hopes to seal agreement on a common response to the global banking crisis. During the talks with Mr Obama, Mr Brown called for a "global new deal" which would see the world's biggest economies agree on a new regulatory system for banks, fiscal stimulus packages to boost growth and action to deal with "shadow banks" and regulatory and tax havens. Mr Obama said he wanted the April summit to look at how the G20 countries can "in a co-ordinated fashion, stimulate their economies" and ensure that there is a common front in making progress on banking. The President cautioned that there would be no swift solution to the global economic crisis but he held out the hope that co-ordinated action can get the world back on the path to prosperity. "All of these steps, I think, are going to slowly build confidence but it is not going to happen yet," he said. "We together have dug a very deep hole for ourselves. There were a lot of bad decisions that were made. We are cleaning up that mess. "There are going to be fits and starts in getting the mess cleaned up but it is going to get cleaned up and we will emerge more prosperous, more unified and more protected from systemic risks." Mr Obama also had warm words for Mr Brown, whom he was meeting for the third time, but the first time as President, saying the two of them had a "shared world view". "I would like to think that our relationship is good and I am sure he won't dispute that," he said. "I think that the Prime Minister has taken the helm of the British economy at a very difficult time... I think there are a set of shared values and shared assumptions between us."
ITN | March 4, 2009
