UK: G20 recovery deal 'a step forward': Medvedev
03 Apr 2009 5:00 AM
LONDON, April 2 AFP - Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has hailed a G20 accord on how to fix the global economy as a "step forward", but cautioned that it was not necessarily a "turning point".
"This is a step forward, this is a step in the right direction. Of course we could not solve all the issues, but such a goal wasn't on the agenda," Medvedev said on Thursday after the G20 summit in London.
"I would like to say that this is a turning point... but as a responsible man I cannot say this," he added.
But he underlined the historic nature of the accord between the world's biggest developed and developing nations, aimed at rescuing the global economy from its deepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"Twenty or 25 years ago one could not even imagine that such different countries with such different economies, such different mentalities and historic traditions would sit at the table and could agree in such a difficult situation on how to act, especialy so quickly," he said.
"The declaration that has just been adopted contains a concrete set of topics, and a concrete set of decisions aimed at overcoming the global financial and economic crisis."
