TheTribune.com

Michelle Obama and the Royal Touch -- All good now?

As for the lighter side of the G-20 wrap-up, much has been made about the US First Lady Michelle Obama's encounter with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.  Apparently Mrs. Obama broke with Royal protocol which dictates that no one shall never ever ever touch the Queen, aside from a quick Royal handshake.

The 'much ado' seemed to subside after The Buckingham Palace Press Officer released a Royal statement saying that there was no breach of protocol and there are no specific instructions issued on how to address the Queen.

The Palace said that "It was a mutual and spontaneous display of affection and appreciation between the Queen and Michelle Obama...The London Summit reception at Buckingham Palace was an informal occasion."

Apparently the Queen was also overheard saying to Michelle Obama 'Let's stay in touch'. -- or something to that effect.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? DID THE US FIRST LADY CROSS THE LINE?

G-20 in 10 verbs --> RESPOND... RESTORE... SUPERVISE... REGULATE... ENSURE... SUSTAIN... FUND... REINVIGORATE... PREVENT... & EXPLAIN.

The London Summit released a document on 'London Summit Outcomes' explaining decisions taken at the G20 on issues such as financial regulation, economic growth, global trade and helping the world’s poorest countries/people.

READ THE COMPLETE (FULL TEXT) OF G-20 LONDON SUMMIT OUTCOMES document.

Here are some highlights of the document, that explains some of the 'Real action' that was agreed to at the G-20 Summit in London:

Restoring Confidence, Jobs, and Growth -- A series of financial market events beginning in 2007 has culminated in the worst international banking crisis in generations... In response to these events, governments of the G20 nations have agreed to take action to accelerate the return to trend growth and support families and businesses through the recession...
Strengthening financial supervision and regulation -- Problems in the financial sector and weaknesses in supervision were one of the fundamental causes of the crisis. Increased lending and securitisation of assets
reduced transparency and exposed the banking system to high levels of systemic risk...
Funding and reforming our international financial institutions to overcome this crisis and prevent future ones...The global financial crisis has resulted in the seizing up of international financial markets that are essential for keeping the world economy functioning. The effects of this have been particularly felt in developing and emerging economies...
To ensure international financial institutions have the resources needed to provide responsive and effective support to developing economies – which have been key factors in world economic growth over the last ten years and are vital to ending the global recession – G20 Leaders have agreed to resources available through the IFIs by $850 billion.

Promoting global trade and investment and reject protectionism, to underpin prosperity Trade is vital for the health of the global economy: The more open to trade economies are, the greater the benefits.
exacerbated by growing protectionist pressures, but also the drying up of trade credit
The G20 leaders stated that reinvigorating world trade and investment is essential for restoring world growth and leaders agreed on action to stop the slowdown in world trade...

Ensuring a fair and sustainable recovery for all...Build an inclusive, green, and sustainable recovery;  -- The global financial crisis affects all countries, rich and poor, and the response will also affect all– both rich and poor countries now, but also future generations. Leaders recognised the human dimension to the crisis and committed to support those affected by creating employment opportunities and through income support measures. And they stated their determination not only to restore growth but also to lay the foundation for a fair and sustainable world economy.

READ THE COMPLETE (FULL TEXT) OF G-20 LONDON SUMMIT OUTCOMES document.

LOOKING AT G20 -- The President, The First Lady & The Queen

US President Barack Obama and US First Lady Michelle Obama being greeted by Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace in London, April 1st, 2009.

LOOK at G-20: World Leaders Descend on London

G20 Photos and Comments by the leaders of INDIA, RUSSIA and CHINA

'The G20 has an important role to play in addressing the global economic and financial slowdown by taking coordinated and purposeful action. It is important and necessary for the Summit to take credible decisions which will help to halt and reverse the current slowdown and to instill a sense of confidence in the global economy.'

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
meets with UK PM Gordon Brown  April 1st 2009

'If you ask what we are proposing, it is simply a more equitable international financial system. In principle all states are talking about this. The issue is where to put the emphasis and whether we want to move forward or simply remain stuck in the situation we have today. Our position is that we need to move forward. I hope that this position will be well-received by our partners during my visit to London for the G20 summit.'

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
at 10 Downing Street, April 1st 2009

 

'Challenge and opportunity always come together. Under certain conditions, one could be transformed into the other.'

 

Chinese President, Hu Jintao
Arriving at 10 Downing Street, April 1st 2009

Photos provided by the London Summit. Limited Use / Crown Copyright

Obama: US-UK Split bet. France & Germany OVERSTATED

The following article was released by the official (UK-based) G-20 host website, perhaps in an effort to downplay conflict and demonstrate the potential for harmony and agreement among leaders of the world's largest economies, now gathering in London for the G-20 Summit. Here are the highlights re. potential differences in P.O.V. and the aim toward consensus :

Obama hails 'enormous consensus' ahead of London Summit

...The American President dealt directly with speculation over a split between Anglo-Saxon economies such as the US and UK, and continental European states such as France and Germany, over whether extra economic stimulus measures or tighter financial regulation should be the priority.

'The separation between the various parties has been vastly over-stated,' he said, accusing the media of wanting to 'inject conflict of drama'. 'The truth is that there has been extraordinary convergence. I am absolutely confident that this meeting will reflect enormous consensus about the need to work in concert to deal with these problems.'...

He said that countries such as France and Germany that had been depicted as opposing fiscal stimulus measures had instituted very 'significant' packages of their own...Mr Obama said how long the crisis would last depended on how effectively countries tackled a series of challenges in the coming months: financial regulation, helping banks deal with toxic assets, managing capital outflows from emerging markets, shielding the poorest countries and reforming international financial institutions.

'All those things will help determine whether this ends up being a slow rolling crisis, that takes a lot more time to cure it, or whether we start seeing significant recovery,' he said. I don't think there is any doubt that 2009 is going to be difficult.'...  Mr Brown added that 'of course it is difficult and of course it is complex - we have a large number of countries - but I am very confident that people not only want to work together but we can agree a common global plan for recovery and reform.'

They were speaking just hours after Mr Sarkozy gave out a strong message that he expected real tangible results from the Summit.  In a radio interview with Europe 1 Mr Sarkozy said 'I will not associate myself with a summit that would end with a communiqué made of false compromises that would not tackle the issues that concern us,' and went on to highlight that no agreements had yet been reached, suggesting that Leaders still had much to discuss on April 2nd.

G-20 today

Scheduled events for the G20 London Summit April 1st 2009, Evening:               

Reception hosted by Her Majesty The Queen and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

Dinner for Heads of Delegation at 10 Downing Street, hosted by The Rt Hon Gordon Brown, Prime Minister

Images of G-20 -- Obama on 10 Downing St.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama with
Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US Treasury Secy. Tim Geithner and Chancellor Alistair Darling at 10 Downing Street, April 1st, 2009.


 

Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama answer questions from the media in London, April 1st 2009.

UK -- G-20: 'It's all about values.'

G-20 Focus on 'Enduring Values' by UK host Prime Minister Brown

Here are over a dozen references to 'VALUES' in the British P.M.'s major G-20 speech, as he prepares to welcome leaders from across the world:

• ...And today he and I want to discuss with you not the details of specific or technical financial programmes or policies, but instead enduring values - indeed the enduring virtues - that we have inherited from the past which must infuse our ideals and hopes for the future.
• And I want to suggest to you today that this most modern of crises, the first financial crisis of the global age, has confirmed the enduring importance of the most timeless of truths - that our financial system must be founded on the very same values that are at the heart of our family lives, neighbourhoods and communities.
• Instead of a globalisation that threatens to become values-free and rules-free, we need a world of shared global rules founded on shared global values. I know it’s hard to talk about the future when you’re having a tough time in the present. You don’t redesign a boat in the midst of a storm.
• But we need to talk about the future - because it falls to us to shape it. When Dr Martin Luther King talked about the fierce urgency of now, he asked us to awaken to a ttde in the affairs of men which if missed means you can end up being literally too late forhistory.
• ...There are four great global challenges our generation must address urgently financial instability in a world of global capital flows, environmental degradation in a world of changing energy need, violent extremism in a world of mass communications and increased mobility, and extreme poverty in a world of growing inequalities.
• Answering these questions will determine whether people have continued faith in globalisation, in multilateralism and in modernity itself. And what these challenges have in common is that none of them can be addressed by one country or one continent acting alone. None of them can be met and mastered without the world coming together. And none of them can be solved without agreed global rules informed by shared global values.
• The oil price crisis last year, the financial crisis this year, and a climate change crisis every year, all mean that we are not at a moment of change we are in a world of change. Twenty years ago only one billion people were part of the world’s industrial economy - but now 4 billion are. For centuries people rarely moved even from their home town, now every single year 200 million people - the equivalent of the whole populations of Britain, Germany and France - move from their country of birth - and next year another 200 million will do so again...
• And the sensible limits to markets agreed in one country became undermined by global competition between all countries as each raced to the bottom. Instead of banks being, as they should be, stewards of people’s money, some of them became speculators with people’s futures.
• I say to you plainly the world of the old Washington Consensus is over, and what comes in its place is up to us Instead of a global free market threatening to descend into a global free for all, we must reshape our global economic system so that it respects the values we celebrate in our everyday lives.
• For I believe that the unsupervised globalisation of our financial markets did not only cross national boundaries - it crossed moral boundaries too. In our families we raise our children to work hard and to do their best and do their bit We don’t reward them for taking irresponsible risks that would put them or others in danger, and we don’t encourage them to seek short-term gratification at the expense of long term success...
• And so our task today is to bring our financial markets into closer alignment with the values held by families and business-people across our country. Yesterday I said there were five tests for the G20, and the first of these is to clean up the global banking system.
• Most people want a market that is free, but never values-free, a society that is fair but not laissezfaire. And so across the world our task is to agree global economic rules that reflect our enduring values.
• That means rules that make transparent the risks that banks take, rules that bring hedge funds and shadow banking inside the regulatory net, rules that force banks to hold sufficient capital and ensure their liquidity, rules that require boards who understand their business and take responsibility for the decisions they take, and systems of pay and bonuses that reward people for long term value and not short term risk taking...
• And we can now see that markets cannot self regulate but they can self destruct and, again if unbridled and untrammeled, they can become not just the enemy of the good society, but the enemy of the good economy too. Markets are in the public interest but not synonymous with it.
• And the truth is that the virtues we admire most and make society flourish - hard work, taking responsibility, being honest, being fair - these are not values that spring from the market, they are the values we bring to it. They don’t come from market forces they come from the heart, and they are the values nurtured in families and in schools, in our shared institutions and our neighbourhoods.
• So markets depend upon that which they do not create - they presuppose a well of values and work at their best when these values are upheld. And that is why what I argued controversially some time ago is now in my view more generally agreed, that there are limits to markets just as there are limits to states.
• Just as in the 1970s and 80s people felt government was too powerful in the grip of vested interests that had to be channelled to work in the public interest, so too it is now clear that financial markets can become too powerful and come to be dominated by vested interests of their own. And so it falls to us, supporters of free markets, to save free markets from the most dogmatic of free marketeers.
• To say this is not anti-business, anti-private sector or anti-market. Quite the contrary - my point is that strong rules rooted in shared values are the best way to serve both ourselves and our market system. Markets need morals.
• The reason I have long been fascinated by Adam Smith who came from my home town Kirkcaldy is that he recognised that the invisible hand of the market had to be underpinned by the helping hand of society, that he argued the flourishing of moral sentiments is the foundation of the wealth of nations.
• So the challenge for our generation is whether or not we can formulate global rules for our financial and economic systems that are grounded in our shared values.
• Now that people can communicate instantaneously across borders, cultures and faiths, I believe we can be confident that across the world we are discovering that there is a shared moral sense. It is a sense strong enough to ensure the constant replenishment of that well of values on which we depend and which must infuse our shared rules.
• And when people ask can there be a shared global ethics that will lie behind global rules, I answer that through each of our heritages, our traditions and faiths, there runs a single powerful moral sense demanding responsibility from all and fairness to all.

READ THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER'S FULL SPEECH

UK P.M. Brown on G-20: 'A decisive moment...London’s big chance to lead'

Here are some highlights from Prime Minister Gordon Brown's article (London Evening Standard) regarding the G-20 Summit.

The eyes of the world will be on the capital this week and I know that London will rise to the occasion. I am very much looking forward to welcoming to the city the leaders of the G20 countries, the world's largest economies. I can't promise that the week will be completely hassle-free for commuters and residents but I can assure you that everyone is working hard to keep disruption to a minimum. I know the city will cope admirably and Londoners, as they have done so often in the past, will extend a warm and generous welcome to our visitors...

The most important benefit will be the opportunity to agree further co-ordinated action to create jobs, tighten and toughen up banking rules, increase support and bank lending for businesses and protect families in London and across the world...

This is a decisive moment for the world economy. Growth has stalled around the world. We have a choice to make. We can either let the recession run its course and retreat into isolationism - a "do nothing" approach that will push us further into recession. Or we can resolve as a world community to unite, to act and fight back against this global recession that is hurting people in every country in every continent. This is the test we face in London this week.

UK to US: 'You've made strong impression across Europe'

Secy Clinton met her British counterpart David Miliband in Washington, Wed. March 18th. The UK Foreign Secy. couldn't be more clear about the refreshing nature of dealing with the new administration on foreign affairs.

"We’re very struck that the Obama Administration wants to have a discussion of objectives, of strategy...
'...you’re building on the very strong, positive impression...made right across Europe...'

Highlights excerpted from:
Remarks from Secy. Clinton and UK Foreign Secretary, the Rt Hon David Miliband, Washington, DC, March 18, 2009

US Secy of State CLINTON: I am pleased that the foreign secretary has come for another visit to further our cooperative working relationship in preparation for the March 31st meeting in The Hague and in preparation for the G-20 meeting, the NATO summit, the EU-U.S. meeting. We have a lot on our agenda.


UK Foreign Minister MILIBAND: We’re looking forward to our discussions and hearing how you’re building on the very strong, positive impression that the Administration and you, in particular, have made right across Europe. So, glad to be here.

[Response to Q. about AFGHANISTAN and possible Obama request for NATO to put more troops in Afghanistan] --
MILBAND: I think that we have discussed this in the European community, European Union and in NATO as well. We’re very struck that the Obama Administration wants to have a discussion of objectives, of strategy, and better resources, and they want to do it in that order. Obviously in the UK, we have about 12 percent of (inaudible) forces in Afghanistan. I think what I would say is that the greatest increase in troops over the next few years is going to come from Afghans, because it’s the Afghan National Army that is the focus of development. But some European countries are increasing their troop numbers, but I think there’s a real sense that the Administration is serious about consultation and collaboration about all aspects of the objectives of the strategy as well as the resources, and that’s greatly appreciated.

CLINTON: [continues on Afghanistan]: And I would only add, Arshad, that what we have is an integrated strategy to achieve the objectives so that the civilian capacity that is going to be important for assisting in the training of the Afghan National Army as well as the police in supporting governance, rule of law, judicial systems, economic opportunities is also on the table. So we’re going to have a thorough discussion leading up to the March 31st meeting because we believe that the objectives and the strategic review should lead in making clear what the resources will be, and we’ll get into the specifics as we move forward.

Daily Appointments Schedule for Secy. of State Clinton for Wed. March 18th, 2009.
Madame Secretary is in Washington, DC
11:45 a.m. --  MEETING / LUNCH:  M.P. & Secy. of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, UNITED KINGDOM
3:00 p.m. -- CALL:  Commander-in-Chief of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Glen Gardner, Jr.,
3:30 p.m. -- MEETING:  The Minister of Foreign Affairs for BAHRAIN,  Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa

BIO BRIEFS FOR TODAY'S MEETINGS:

'My first career ambition was to be a bus conductor'

DAVID MILBRAND, BRITISH M.P. & Secy. of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs:
Born, 1965 attended schools in London, Leeds, Boston (MIT), Oxford (Corpus Christi College).
He has an informative and friendly bio on his About David page, so -- in his own words:
"I was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in June 2007 and before this, from May 2006 to June 2007, I was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. I was elected as MP for South Shields in June 2001 and my previous Ministerial jobs have been Minister of Communities and Local Government (2005-6), Minister for the Cabinet Office (2004-5) and Schools Minister (2002-4). Before that I headed-up the Prime Minister's Policy Unit at Downing Street, after working as Head of Policy in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition. From 1989-1994 I worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and from 1992-4 was Secretary of the Commission on Social Justice; my first job was for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations."

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (the Foreign Secretary) is responsible to Parliament for the work of the The Foreign & Commonwealth Office or FCO. He is supported by two Ministers of State, three Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State, and a Permanent Under-Secretary of State (PUS) who is the Head of the Diplomatic Service.

'Volunteered for Jimmy Carter's Pres. Campaign'

H.E Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohamed Al- Khalif, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Bahrain
Born: 1960. Education includes degree from in US from St. Edward's  University in Texas. While in US, he volunteered in the election campaign of President Jimmy Carter in 1980. He has also held positions a range of ministries including: Diplomat Bahrain Embassy in Washington, D.C., Chief Liaison Officer, Director of Public Relations and Information; Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the UK, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. He was awarded the Bahrain Medal by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in recognition of his contribution as Liaison Officer during the Territorial Dispute between Bahrain and Qatar. Proficient in English and Spanish.

IRAN to be part of UK's 'global nuclear bargain' ?

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown has called for a “global nuclear bargain for our times”. Speaking, Tues. March 17th, at the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference in London, he spoke about the balance between global society's needs of nuclear power and the threats of nuclear proliferation. He said:  “We must invest in all sources of carbon energy - energy efficiency, renewables, carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power. Given the scale of global emissions reductions required and the likely costs, no cost-effective low carbon technology must be off-limits.”

He cited Iran as a test case, saying that Iran has to make a "clear choice” to continue as usual face further sanctions, or adopt a UN overseen civil nuclear energy program.
Read more from 10 Downing Street.