Translated material
“Thank you, Barack, for your work.”
The APEC summit allowed Russia and the United States to bring closer positions on the reduction of offensive weapons
The world economy will no longer be able to remain the same after the crisis. But so far, apparently, there is no final clarity on the question of what it will be and what kind of assistance from states will benefit it. The leaders of 21 countries participating in the Organization of Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation devoted the whole weekend to searching for new ways of development. APEC members include Australia, Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, Canada, China, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Russia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, USA, Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Thailand, Philippines, Chile, Chinese Taiwan and Japan. Exactly the same number of petals were embroidered on the lotus flowers that adorned the traditional Singaporean shirts that all the leaders wore for joint photographs. A joint photo in the national costumes of the organizing country is a mandatory part of the program of each summit.Traditionally, such summits are used by state leaders as an opportunity to communicate with each other. Dmitry Medvedev held a number of meetings with his colleagues - the leaders of China, Canada, Vietnam, and Japan. In addition, Dmitry Medvedev had a bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama. Presidents communicate regularly with each other. They first met in April of this year at the G20 summit in London, then in July Barack Obama came on an official visit to Moscow, and in October of this year they communicated again during the G20 in the United States.
This time the meeting also took place on “American” territory. Dmitry Medvedev arrived at the Shangri-La Hotel, where Barack Obama was staying. Speaking to reporters after the talks, both leaders looked pleased. "The reset button has been hit and we're moving in the right direction," Mr. Obama told reporters. “Thank you, Barak, for your work,” responded the Russian leader.
The presidents of Russia and the United States predictably devoted a significant portion of their time to the prospects for concluding the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START). As you know, the current agreement expires at the beginning of December, and Russia has repeatedly stated that it will not extend it. The presidents agreed in principle that the new treaty would be adopted on time. Barack Obama said the parties had made “significant progress on New START, although some difficult technical issues remain,” and the treaty would be signed by the end of the year. According to Mr. Medvedev, some points of disagreement are technical, and some are political, at the presidential level. He also assured that the agreement would be signed in December.
“This will be our joint contribution to strengthening international security. Because this is precisely the topic where the overall climate—the climate on the issue related to the limitation of strategic delivery vehicles, strategic nuclear forces—depends on the positions of the Russian Federation and the United States of America. They look at us, and the situation in the world depended on how well we hear each other, even in previous years, and now this is even more important, because we are now not separated by the ideological barriers that we had, but, on the contrary, we are trying to solve those tasks that are entrusted to us, in the most friendly and constructive way possible,” said the Russian President.
It is possible that the phrase about climate in this statement had additional implications. Thus, Dmitry Medvedev is hinting that the START Treaty will be signed in early December in Copenhagen, where both he and the American leader will attend the UN climate change conference.
Barack Obama's chief adviser on relations with Russia, Michael McFaul, explained to reporters the current situation with the treaty after the meeting of the two presidents. According to him, the interim agreement will be ready by December 5, the date when the current START Treaty expires (a full-fledged new treaty will not be ready in any case, since its adoption will require ratification by parliaments). “Now I would just note that we do not see any obstacles on the way,” RIA Novosti quotes Mr. McFaul as saying.
The second most important topic of Russian-American high-level negotiations was the Iranian nuclear program. Barack Obama spoke harshly, saying that “time is running out” and if Tehran does not agree to the exclusively peaceful use of nuclear technology on its territory, sanctions will be strengthened. Dmitry Medvedev said more vaguely that “we are not entirely satisfied with the pace” and “the negotiation process is being conducted not for the sake of enjoying the negotiations, but to achieve practical results.” But he also did not rule out introducing sanctions if negotiations reach a dead end again. After this, Barack Obama flew to China (he has a three-day visit planned here), and Dmitry Medvedev began his official visit to Singapore with a gala dinner.
The summit in Singapore itself, as well as the decisions taken at it, turned out to be interim. Countries no longer need to unite in order to survive in times of crisis, as was the case last year at a summit in the capital of Peru, Lima, but it is also too early to make ambitious plans for growing economies. “We cannot return to the usual growth model. Next year, we will adopt a comprehensive long-term growth strategy aimed at more balanced development of our economies and the region as a whole, as well as expanding access to the benefits of economic recovery for wider sections of the population and protecting the environment,” the final report says. declarations.
APEC leaders agreed that the vigorous efforts taken to achieve their goal of overcoming the recession within 18 months have created the basis for an economic recovery, but it is not yet based on a solid foundation. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev shares the same opinion. “It has already become commonplace to state that recently there have been, as they say, individual signs of exiting the recession, individual signs of stabilization. Macroeconomic indicators indicate that economic activity is recovering and the situation in the financial sector is improving, which gives rise to cautious optimism. However, it is certainly premature to talk about the recovery of the world economy - in all likelihood, only a period of adaptation to new conditions has begun. What's behind this period? To be very frank, despite the huge number of forecasts, analytical notes, expert opinions, no one really knows,” he said, speaking at the APEC business summit.
At the summit they again spoke about the inadmissibility of introducing protectionist measures in a crisis era. “We strongly reject any form of protectionism, and reaffirm our commitment to keeping markets open and refraining from erecting new barriers to investment or trade in goods and services, and instruct ministers to continue to regularly review the implementation of our commitments in this area,” the declaration said.
It should be recalled that the declared rejection of protectionist measures was the main result of last year’s summit. However, almost all APEC member countries lacked consistency in implementing this decision. Mr. Medvedev also self-critically admitted this, but promised to improve. “This is our common task - to improve trade and financial infrastructure, principles and standards of regulation, and improve the work of customs services. Russia is well aware of the harmfulness of protectionism, especially during a crisis. Therefore, I would like to specifically emphasize that those certain, not very significant protective measures that we took during this period are short-term in nature and will be completed,” he said.
In addition to statements of readiness to continue implementing last year’s decisions, new measures for economic development appeared in the final declaration. APEC countries agreed to reduce administrative barriers everywhere and support small businesses. They were no doubt prompted to make these decisions by the meeting place. It was these measures that largely contributed to Singapore's economic miracle. By the way, Dmitry Medvedev awarded the father of this miracle, the creator of Singapore in the modern sense of the word, minister-mentor Lee Kuan Yew, with the Order of Friendship yesterday.
“We will strive to reduce by a total of 25% by 2015 the cost, duration and number of procedures that our entrepreneurs need to undertake to start a business, obtain a loan, fulfill a contract, obtain the necessary permits and conduct a cross-border trade transaction,” - the heads of state decided. They also announced their readiness to meet the goal of reducing transaction costs (costs when concluding contracts) by 5% next year. Small and medium-sized enterprises, which provide jobs for 50 to 80% of the working population in the APEC region, are promised assistance in improving access to global markets, technology and finance.
However, the main thing in such global events is not specific decisions, but the rapprochement of different countries of the world. “The crisis, of course, is a very difficult phase in the development of the world economy. This is a dramatic event for every country, but nevertheless, the crisis still teaches. And the fact that we have come a long way over the past year, the fact that we have learned to listen to each other much better, and most importantly, in my opinion, the fact that we were capable of consolidated actions, in any case, inspires optimism in me.” , Dmitry Medvedev said at the summit.
The tradition of gathering in exotic places will continue. Yesterday, Barack Obama announced that the venue for the 2011 summit will be his small homeland - Hawaii (next year the meeting will be held in Yokohama, Japan). And in 2012 it will be the turn of Russia, the Primorsky Territory. For the sake of two days of the summit, large-scale construction has been launched on Russky Island near Vladivostok, so in terms of exotic things we may be in first place.