The Prime Minister has laid the foundations of the upcoming G20 summit in London by stressing that “only a truly international response” to the current global economic crisis can be effective.
Speaking at the Foreign Press Association in London today, Mr Brown said that the world should avoid retreating into domestic markets and beginning a process of “deglobalisation”. World leaders attending April’s London Summit should secure the “widest possible international agreement” on building a financial early-warning system, establishing the principles of new global regulation and agreeing international standards of governance, he said.
The PM said:
“Let us be clear: this is an international economic hurricane sweeping the world and lashing our country. But we are taking action to calm the storm to bring order of our chaos so Britain can be better placed to benefit as the storm passes - as pass it will.
And we will succeed - but only if we leave yesterday’s solutions behind, and reshape our international institutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow.”
Mr Brown said that the Government had taken important steps in trying to limit the impact of the global crisis on the UK economy. The recapitalisation programme had prevented a banking collapse, while the fiscal stimulus and the credit stimulus aimed to get the economy moving and improve lending flows to families and businesses, he said.
The PM stressed that money that provided to the banks was not “free money” but was being used to buy assets or provide guarantees for a commercial fee. More than two-thirds of the £16 billion lent to Northern Rock had already been repaid, he said.
Mr Brown, who spoke to US President Barack Obama at the weekend, will meet a number of world leaders over the next week, including the Prime Ministers of China, Korea and Japan, in the run-up to April’s G20 Summit. He and the Chancellor will also invite the heads of major international banks to London to discuss ways of taking the global financial system forward.
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