Nice, France - Russia supports the idea of holding a second summit of the world's greatest powers to debate the reform of the global financial system after a meeting in Washington scheduled for the weekend, the country's president said Friday. "I am very supportive of the idea of holding a new summit after Washington without delay. We are ready to communicate with Europe on these issues in advance," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after a meeting with European Union leaders in the French resort of Nice.
On Saturday, the leaders of the world's 20 greatest powers - including both Medvedev and his host on Friday, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, French President Nicolas Sarkozy - are set to meet in Washington to discuss a global reaction to the current financial crisis.
Ahead of the meeting, Sarkozy said that the so-called G20 should meet again 100 days after the Washington talks to follow up on its recommendations.
That would allow US president-elect Barack Obama, who is not expected to attend the Washington talks, to have his say on the crisis, Medvedev's spokeswoman, Natalia Timakova, explained.
Sarkozy and Medvedev both stressed that their ideas of the proper response to the financial crisis were almost identical, with the Russian leader saying that "the positions that I have and Nicolas has pretty much coincide."
"We need an appropriate and adequate response: not just a list of declarations, handshakes and photo shoots but an action plan. We need to insist on having a fully-fledged agenda on reaching very serious decisions," he said.
But the presidents also agreed that the Washington summit would only be the start of the international reform process.
"We won't be able to sign new agreements now, or decide which international institutions should remain and which should be reformed," Medvedev pointed out.
On November 7, EU leaders at an emergency summit in Brussels agreed on four principles which should underpin international financial reform: transparency, crisis prevention, better regulation, and the strengthening of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
On Thursday, Medvedev set out his principles for reform: better regulation, transparency, supervision, tighter controls on rating agencies, better risk management and free trade.
