G20 Summit: Sarkozy sets the tone, and yes he can

April 2, 12:42 PMForeign Policy ExaminerAimee Kligman

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Foreign Policy Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

French President Nicolas Sarkozy gestures at his press conference at the G20 Summit at the Excel centre in London, Thursday, April 2, 2009. The objective of the London Summit is to bring the world's biggest economies together to help restore global economic growth through enhanced international coordination. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Nicolas Sarkozy has been threatening for days leading up to the G20 summit that if certain concrete results were not achieved during this international conference that he'd be walking out.

He had a very staunch ally in Angela Merkel in seeking to impose new restrictions and regulations in the finance industry, without which both leaders feel there could be no resolution of the crisis.

Obama, on the other hand, is an advocate of stimulus and once again, circumvented a question posed to him by the European press yesterday about responsibility for the crisis. Unfortunately for him, he could not charm his way with this approach with his French and German allies.

As I listen to President Sarkozy's opening remarks at the G20 Gordon Brown Press Conference, I come away with the impression that Sarkozy put forth some excellent ideas. There will be a black list drawn up of tax havens; there will be a tripling of funding for the IMF, and a large portion of this capitalization is to help developing countries. A new body (committee) will be in charge of 'oversight'.  There will be a follow up meeting of the G20 in New York to coincide with the annual National Security Council meeting, where the G20 will evaluate the results of the measures implemented during this current summit.

During the Q & A part of his speech, he tried to tread lightly on Obama's differences with his European partners; he lauded him for agreeing to the black list. But he pointed to the failure of certain aspects of capitalism that precipitated this crisis, i.e.  total deregulation. He did say that his 'Anglo-Saxon' friends did finally agree that rules are needed, oversights, more regulation, less protectionism. Free trade and protectionism, i.e., 'buy American' were items that were on many reporters minds.

Sarkozy did say that there had been tension, arguments, disagreements,-of course, but considering the diversity of cultures and economic systems by which the attendees abide, it was heartening that they could finally come to agree on key points.

By the way, Chinese President Hu Jintao did not ignore Sarkozy as promised. President Obama may have had something to do with this rapprochement, as Sarkozy alluded that they had a 3-way meeting, claiming that he didn't understand why it had to be that way. When asked by one of the reporters for his opinion of Barack Obama, and also in comparison with his predecessor, Sarkozy said in essence that he wasn't going to touch on the comparison part of the question.

His pronouncement on the crisis: it was a crisis in the financial sector that caused the economic crisis. In other words, our friends who live in the capitalism world did not have sufficient regulation and oversight to avert the crisis.

You can hear live streaming of the days events here

Do browse the G20 website as it is put together with great care and is most interesting. If you missed any of the events of yesterday, check the Video on Demand section to see what you can catch up on.

Special Report: Obama's First 100 Days
Exclusive examiner.com coverage of the Obama administration's promise to bring about change.

• Transcript: President Obama discusses economy in news conference
• Vote now: What will Obama change most?
• The Obama Administration at a glance
• Examiner Coverage: AIG Bonuses