President to depart for G-20 summit in London

The Jakarta Post | Fri, 03/27/2009 7:00 PM

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will visit London from March 30 to April 2, 2009 to attend the G-20 Summit.

"The upcoming G-20 Summit is the second G-20 Summit after the first one in Washington DC, the United States, in November 2008, which was also attended by President Yudhoyono," Dino Patti Djalal, a presidential spokesman, said here on Friday.

The London Summit would be a follow up to the Washington meeting which had issued a Leaders' Declaration and Action Plan to deal with the global economic crisis, he said.

"The implication of the Leaders' Declaration is to encourage G-20 member countries to take the initiative in solving the ongoing global financial crisis with emphasize on efforts to solve the current crisis," he said.

The meeting would also identify efforts to be made by G-20 member countries to prevent a similar crisis from recurring in the future, he said.

"Indonesia has been pushing for efforts to make the second G-20 Summit more concrete and real in solving the global financial crisis and its impact on developing countries," he said.

The countries' leaders agreed on the need to have a rapid solution in dealing with the banking problem in the US and Europe, including toxic assets, the establishment of global expenditure support funds, and the global financial system reform, he said.

"While in London, the President is also scheduled to have bilateral meetings with several world leaders who will attend the G-20 Summit in London, including the Australian prime minister, the British prime minister, and the UN Secretary General, and the possibility of a meeting with President Barack Obama is still being explored," Djalal said.

President Yudhoyono is also scheduled to deliver a speech at the London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE) on March 31, 2009.

The head of state will leave London, on April 2, 2009.