Berlin - The global financial crisis could present the
international community with the chance to lay aside the recent
tensions that have emerged with Russia, World Bank chief Robert
Zoellick said in a speech delivered in Berlin Wednesday.
'Relations with Russia have been strained in recent years,'
Zoellick told an audience at Berlin's Humboldt University.
'Today's financial crisis could be an opportunity to develop
sounder economic relations that might be a foundation, with Russia's
help, to build co-operation in solving common problems,' said
Zoellick.
Delivering the first Willy Brandt lecture, the World Bank chief
also stepped up his call for the international community to take
action to recognize the growing economic power of the world's leading
emerging economies such as Russia and China.
In a sense, Zoellick's remarks echoed comments made over the
weekend by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who said working
together with the US to resolve the economic crisis was an
opportunity for the two countries to rebuild relations.
This in particular follows the tensions unleashed between
Washington and Moscow over US plans to deploy missiles in Central
Europe and the conflict in Georgia.
'The financial crisis is the common enemy of the US and Russia,'
Medvedev told a gathering at the Council on Foreign Relations think
tank in Washington after attending the summit of Group of 20 (G20)
leaders in the US capital.
The G20 took a major step at its summit in Washington towards
boosting the role of emerging economies in key global forums such as
the International Monetary Fund and paving the way for regular
meetings of G20 leaders.
In his speech in Berlin, Zoellick also stressed again how
inadequate forums such as the Group of Seven leading industrial
nations were in facing up to the changes underway in the world
economy.
'As the financial crisis has shown, we need more than the Group of
Seven to address today's 21st century problems,' he said.
'Rising economic powers such as China, India and Russia must be
part of the solution,' he told his audience.
'We now need reinvented global frameworks to reach our potential,
to weather storms of economic changes or climate security,' he said.
Delivering his speech, Zoellick paid tribute to Brandt's vision in
international affairs and his efforts as German Chancellor between
1969 and 1974 to end Germany's Cold War divide.
In addition to stressing the importance of Germany's ties with
western democracies, Zoellick said Brandt 'was alert to the
sensitivities of Germany's smaller eastern states.'
With this in mind, Zoellick called on Berlin to play an active
role in helping the new democracies in Central Europe that emerged
from the collapse of communism nearly 20 years to find their way
through the current financial crisis.
'Now some of Germany's newer European Union neighbours face
financial and economic dangers,' the World Bank chief said. 'They are
caught up in an economic whirlwind.
'I hope Germany will work with other EU members to be supportive
of those neighbours,' said Zoellick.
Germany's post-Second World War economic transformation helped to
lay the foundations for the nation to emerge as Europe's biggest
economy.
But the World Bank President reminded his audience: 'You know
better than others how economic travails can spark political embers,
flaming into social conflagrations.'
The German and European horizon should also be extended to the
challenges taking shape in Ukraine, Moldova and the Caucasus,
Zoellick said.
'Joining with its European partners and multilateral institutions,
Germany can help these countries withstand today's financial and
economic storms,' said Zoellick.
EdwardNov 19th, 2008 - 19:50:54
I wish Obama listens more to people thinking like Zoellick instead of relying on those in his immediate circle who are pushing for Russia's isolation and NATO expansion
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