02 Apr 2009
April 2 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama on his first full day overseas addressed his broader foreign policy goals with Russia and China while also seeking to reassure a worldwide audience about the economy.Obama met in London yesterday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, coming away with an agreement to start up new arms control talks, and with Chinese President Hu Jintao, with whom he promised to establish a strategic and economic dialogue.
The leaders are in the U.K. for a summit of the Group of 20 nations focused on steps to battle a global recession and come up with a new regime of regulations to prevent another crisis in financial markets.
At a news conference with G-20 host U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama urged people around the world to shun "fear" as they consider their personal financial future.
"This is a difficult time, but it's not what happened to our grandparents' generation," he said, making reference to the Great Depression. "I would ask people to be confident."
Obama's remarks were his latest attempt -- and his first on the international stage -- to strike a balance between acknowledging the dire economic conditions and the need for governments and consumers to project hope.
Jobs and Confidence
In the U.S. the jobless rate reached a 25-year high of 8.1 percent in February, and economists surveyed by Bloomberg News project a Labor Department report this week will show it rose to 8.5 percent last month. Confidence among U.S. consumers climbed in March after reaching the lowest level on record a month earlier, according to figures from the Conference Board that date back to 1967.
Obama said it is understandable that many people are "somewhat cautious in the midst of this kind of uncertainty."
"The best advice I would have is to say, that despite the current hardships, we are going to get through this, and so you should plan sensibly in anticipation that this economy is going to recover," he said.
While the economy consumed the agenda of the G-20, Obama also sought to advance his foreign policy as he met for the first time with Medvedev and Hu. He accepted invitations from both to visit their countries this year.
Arms Negotiations
Obama and the Russian leader agreed to open a new round of arms control talks aimed at cutting their weapons stockpiles and curtailing the spread of nuclear arms to Iran and North Korea.
The new accord would replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December. The agreement builds on a timetable U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set out last month in Geneva. The new accord would replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December.
Obama is attempting to repair relations with Russia that frayed during former President George W. Bush's administration.
"We have considerably more positions that bring us together than those that force us apart," Medvedev said after his meeting with Obama. In recent years, he said, relations with the U.S. "drifted in the wrong direction. This is neither in the interests of the U.S.A., Russia, nor for the situation in the world."
Obama said the pledge to pursue a reduction of nuclear arsenals marks "the beginning of new progress" in the U.S.- Russian relationship.
Obama and Medvedev steered away from the principal sources of friction between the two countries: Bush's proposal to build a missile shield in eastern Europe and U.S. backing for the inclusion of former Soviet republics including Ukraine and Georgia within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Meeting With Hu
Obama and Hu agreed to establish a "U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue" to discuss financial, trade and other issues between the two countries, the White House said in a statement. Both sides vowed to combat protectionism that may be arising amid the global recession.
"The relationship between the U.S. and China has become extremely constructive," Obama said. "Our economic relationships are very strong."
On the financial crisis, Obama and Hu agreed to "help the world economy return to strong growth and to strengthen the international financial system so a crisis of this magnitude never happens again," according to the statement.
One issue that didn't arise between Obama and Hu was a proposal by China's top banker to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency, according to an administration official who briefed reporters after the meeting.
U.S. Debt
China is the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. debt. The official said Hu didn't reiterate comments made by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last month that China is "worried" about its holdings of U.S. government debt. At the end of January, China held $739.6 billion in U.S. Treasury securities, according to the U.S. Treasury.
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama yesterday also called on Buckingham Palace for a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II. The president gave the Queen an engraved iPod that included multimedia files with images of the Queen's 2007 visit to the U.S. and an audio recording of his inaugural address, as well as a rare book of songs signed by Broadway composer Richard Rogers.
The G-20 summit gets fully under way today. The president also plans separate meeting with the leaders of South Korea, Saudi Arabia and India.
