Medvedev holds bilateral meeting with Cameron, discusses economy and development on first day of Muskoka Summit
Russia’s G8 Sherpa Arkady Dvorkovich held a telephone briefing with the media on Friday evening following a full day of G8 working sessions – including Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s bilateral meeting with recently-elected British Prime Minister David Cameron. President Medvedev and Prime Minister Cameron discussed a wide array of issues, including the Middle East peace process, Iran’s nuclear program, and the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The two leaders committed to increase Russian-British cooperation on the aforementioned issues and other areas of common concern in the next few months.
The first G8 Working Session focused on world economy issues, with a particular focus on the European debt crisis. President Medvedev emphasized the need to find collective ways of helping affected countries lower their budget deficits. Although international financial reform will be discussed in greater detail at the Toronto G20 Summit, Dvorkovich revealed that negotiations over IMF reform promised to be “difficult.”
The G8 Working Session with both the African Outreach and the Extended Outreach leaders resulted in a pledge to allocate 5 billion dollars US over the next five years towards initiatives designed to promote maternal health and curb childhood mortality. According to Dvorkovich, this funding will include 75 million dollars US over three years by Russia. In dialogue with African and Latin American leaders, Medvedev also pointed to the narcotics trade as a problem that needs to be urgently addressed through international coordination.