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G20 summit: the verdicts from the world's press

This article is more than 14 years old
G20 media reaction is a mixture of cautious optimism and scepticism

France

The French press were cautiously optimistic, praising G20 politicians for wresting back power over the world of finance. "Elected politicians take back control," said the left-leaning daily Libération, even if it felt the G20 results needed to be confirmed in time. "Words have changed, now we have to judge on actions."

The business paper Les Echos was relieved that leaders had put aside divisions and egos to create a new powerful grouping. "If it's not exactly a world government ... it's much more than a summit." The paper felt advances had been made, beyond expectations, on key issues: a strengthened IMF; financial regulation and the fact that Britain and the US got their big figures on injecting financial aid into the economy, without any "fresh money" really being thrown into the pot.

"The symphony of a new world," said Le Figaro, a paper close to Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party. "Only time will tell if the London summit has marked a decisive turnaround in the return of global growth. But there's no doubt that this meeting is already a success and a new world order will spring from it."

Angelique Chrisafis, Paris

Russia

The pro-Kremlin press was this morning frothing with approval at the outcome of the G20 talks. Izvestia credited Dmitry Medvedev with much of the glory, saying he had impressed other leaders by meeting them with "proposals rather than evaluations. The president suggested to his colleagues that which the Americans have always boasted of, but which the crisis has shown they lacked ‑ openness," it said. Reform of the International Monetary Fund and possible sanctions against offshore zones were concrete achievements of the summit. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver had done his bit by feeding the delegates with "potato ravioli", the paper noted.

Writing in the mass-circulation daily, Moskovsky Komsomolets, commentator Mikhail Rostovsky said the key achievement for Russia was Medvedev and Barack Obama's agreement to seek a new strategic arms reduction deal. "What is most important now is that the new honeymoon period between Moscow and Washington does not follow the scenario of previous ones: delight ‑ one-sided concessions by the Kremlin ‑ mutual accusations."

Tom Parfitt, Moscow

India

The $1.1tn stimulus package finally got the G20 a front page banner headline in the Business Standard. "Brown's statement [on saving and creating jobs] came when there was an overall scepticism over the success of this G20 summit in reaching any concrete agreements over what is good for the global economy," the paper reported.

Yet, in its lead editorial titled "Trade Crash" the paper detailed the precipitous decline in Indian exports and expressed concern that "more countries will increase their levels of protection against imports despite the emphasis [at the G20] on preventing this". The G20's "trillion-$ baby', as the Times of India called it, got top billing in all the papers, as did Barack Obama's description of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as "a wise and marvellous man".

Competing for space with Obama-Singh were pictures of Michelle Obama and the Queen with arms extended behind each other, along with accompanying stories of how, as the Times of India put it, "Michelle charms UK queen into protocol breach".

Maseeh Rahman, Delhi

China

Chinese coverage focused on the $1tn package and the bilateral meeting between Obama and President Hu Jintao. The People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Communist party, said President Hu told his US counterpart that relations were "at a jumping off point and faced with an important development opportunity".

There was no formal confirmation of the country's additional $40bn contribution to the IMF, but state media mentioned Gordon Brown's announcement of the pledge. Chinese media also noted the growing influence of the world's third largest economy.

"This is the first time that developed countries were not the sole guiding force. Emerging market countries got the chance to participate in a summit on formulating and revising global rules," said a commentary in the Beijing Youth Daily. Tania Branigan, Beijing

Germany

German papers were more circumspect in their coverage of the summit's outcome, saying that the G20 final communique would count for little if it were not followed by action in the coming months. Suddeutsche Zeitung said: "The cries of hurrah by the summit participants are no indication of the value of the meeting. There is no government leader who goes in front of the cameras and admits having failed.

"And so it was with the London finance summit, which observers called historic almost before it was over. Historic because the financial crisis is worse than anything the world has seen for decades. Only when the dust has settled, will it become clear what has been achieved," said Der Spiegel.

"The summit participants chose the easy way. Their decision in the foreseeable time scale to pump $5tn in the collapsing global economy could actually prove to be a historical turning point, but a turning point for the worse. The countries are fighting a crisis while at the same time creating the next big one."

Mark Rice-Oxley

United States

There was a mixed reaction in the US press, and scepticism that anything much other than a call for another meeting generally comes from these multinational pow-wows.

"Yesterday's G20 meeting in London was an exception. While President Obama may have overstated things a bit when he declared it a 'turning point' for the now-shrinking global economy, the meeting did manage to boost the confidence of financial markets, inject another trillion dollars into the financial system and provide needed political cover for world leaders to take unpopular actions back home," wrote Steven Pearlstein in the Washington Post.

The New York Times' Helene Cooper, disagreed: "After more than 11 hours of meetings, Mr Obama emerged from his first summit meeting with a handful of modest concrete commitments. He did not get much of what American officials had been hoping for, notably failing to persuade other countries to commit to more fiscal stimulus spending."

The Los Angeles Times was pleased by the money being made available for poor countries. "The money will help keep small nations from tumbling into deep crisis, essentially serving as a fire wall to keep the recession from deepening," it said .

James Sturcke

Brazil

The G20's final communique received a warm but cautious welcome in the Brazilian media today. The influential political blogger and O Globo journalist Miriam Leitao led the chorus, claiming that "when everything had seemed lost, there is now renewed hope".

Leitao celebrated the decision to strengthen the IMF and the fact that developing countries had finally been given a greater voice. "The era in which seven rich countries thought they decided everything for the planet is over," she wrote. Among the more cautious voices was the Gazeta Mercantil, a financial paper. In an editorial the Gazeta said the world would need to wait for the results of the G20 "party". "This party mood, implicit in a meeting laid on in palaces and luxury hotels, makes the atmosphere worse for millions of victims of the crisis," it complained. Most front pages, however, were dominated by the meeting between President Lula and Barack Obama who gestured to the Brazilian leader and reportedly said: "I love this guy … He's the most popular politician on Earth."

Tom Phillips Recife

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