New British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday his government will support the eurozone’s efforts to control its debt crisis, but that he’s glad his country uses the pound, not the euro, as its currency.
On his first overseas trip since being elected, Cameron met French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a working dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris.
Yesterday, Cameron traveled to Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
PHOTO: AFP
Sarkozy said he and Cameron spent most of the dinner discussing ways to reduce the budget deficits of European countries and to end the market speculation against the euro that has rattled the common currency in recent days.
“I think we were right to stay out of the euro,” in light of its current troubles, Cameron told reporters. “But let me be absolutely clear: It’s in Britain’s interest that the eurozone is a success.”
He said his government would honor Britain’s agreement to back eurozone finances, reached before his election earlier this month.
The French and German leaders could be wary of future relations with the new Conservative chief, who is far more skeptical about Britain’s European ties than his Labour Party predecessors, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, were.
Thursday’s meeting was Cameron’s first face-to-face talks with a foreign leader outside of Britain since he became prime minister. He met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at his country residence in southern England last weekend.
At a news conference in London on Thursday, Cameron insisted Britain would not support closer economic governance in Europe as a response to the debt crisis in Greece — which required a 110 billion euro (US$134.97 billion) three-year rescue loan package to stave off bankruptcy.
But he appeared to be more forthcoming in Paris later in the day, stating he supported German and French efforts to better regulate deficits.
“We think that actually addressing the budget deficits is not an alternative to economic growth. We think it’s an important part of getting that economic growth,” Cameron said. “It’s important that we address the causes of problems, and not just the symptoms.”
Cameron also said he agreed with US President Barack Obama’s plan to reform the banking system, which will be discussed at the Group of 20 summit in Canada next month.
Sarkozy said France and Germany would spearhead efforts to reform and toughen European financial governance, including an update of the eurozone stability pact to set more criteria on accountability, transparency and efficiency.
“We’re stronger united than on our own,” Sarkozy said. “That’s the political choice that made me back the euro since its creation.”
Sarkozy said “the euro is a success” because it’s become the second most important currency in the world in a short period. He said the US dollar also had gone through several speculative crisis in the past decade.
“Keep hold of your euro, if you’ve got any,” he told British journalists.
On other matters, Cameron and Sarkozy said they agreed about the war effort in Afghanistan and the need for tougher, more immediate sanctions against Iran, if the country continues to develop a suspected nuclear weapons program.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS