UK: G20 summit must resolve to act or suffer consequences
By Kate Hannon, National Political Editor02 Apr 2009 5:06 AM
LONDON, April 1 AAP - World leaders attending the G20 summit in London must leave the meeting with agreement for immediate action or the global economy will suffer the consequences by the end of the year, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.
On the eve of the summit tasked with tackling the global financial crisis which has wreaked havoc on the world economy plunging it into recession, leaders of the world's largest economies undertook a last-minute flurry of meetings with one another in a bid to bed down agreement on action.
Mr Rudd met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Thailand's Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, and South Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, on Wednesday to discuss the summit and also had an audience with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
In a late addition to his program on Wednesday, Mr Rudd joined a group of world leaders and senior international figures for a late afternoon meeting to discuss climate change and rainforest destruction hosted by Prince Charles at Clarence House.
G20 leaders want to settle on a plan to reform and resource the International Monetary Fund (IMF), recapitalise banks to remove toxic debt which is choking the flow of credit, stop trade protectionism and restructure financial regulatory systems to make it more transparent..
Mr Rudd told reporters on Wednesday there was an emerging consensus among leaders but there was a lot of work ahead, possibly enough for another G20 summit either later this year or early in 2010.
"There are some runs on the board, but there's a long way to go," Mr Rudd told reporters.
But a failure to have concrete proposals agreed upon by the end of Thursday's summit was not an option.
"If we don't agree on new resources for the IMF - new resources - and if we don't agree on more flexible ways for the IMF to operate in the future then the consequences for big problems in the global economy later this year will not be dealt with," Mr Rudd said.
"And they'll become problems for all of us, including back home in Australia."
A significant increase in funding for the IMF was needed to allow it to act to prevent vulnerable economies and their financial systems from "going under".
"Frankly, if it's not dealt with, it ricochets back into Australia with the global financial system."
But Mr Rudd said he was born an optimist and felt positive there could be a constructive outcome despite some disagreement over the value of further economic stimulus.
"It is easy to tell everyone what's going wrong, it's much harder to tell people what's going right and how you fix those things which need fixing," Mr Rudd said.
"I'm in the fixing business, I'm in the problem solving business, how do we turn something bad into something good, how do we take what we've got and make it better? That's why we're here and that's why Australia will always be a positive voice at conferences like this."
During his meeting with Mr Medvedev the two found they had much in common on what is needed to fix the global economy after regular phone contact over the past few months.
"We have an obligation, as leaders, to produce the most substantive outcome possible from this G20 summit because working people across the world depend on this being a good outcome," Mr Rudd said as the two posed for photographs before their meeting on Wednesday.
"All those working people are looking to us as leaders to do everything physically possible to support their interests both in the months ahead but also through until 2010," Mr Rudd said.
