June 29, 2019, 10:50,
President of Russia http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news (Russia)
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/60857
Following
the G20 summit, the President of Russia answered journalists’
questions.
Osaka, Japan
President
of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon. Let us begin. Go
ahead, please.
Question:
Good afternoon, Mr President. We would like to ask, since I am
the first to ask a question, about your personal results
of the summit. There was a lot of scepticism prior
to it, coming both from other leaders and expressed by you,
concerning the possible results of the summit. Was
the scepticism justified? What are the outcomes for world trade
and the global economy?
And the second
question, if I may: what were Russia’s objectives here
at the G20, and were the results achieved?
Vladimir
Putin: There was certain scepticism, it is true,
and not from me alone. Yet on the whole the G20 summit has
proved its relevance, we have to admit that, and it was effective
in all the major areas of work. The result has been
achieved. I think we can congratulate the Japanese presidency
on that. Japan did a lot for the summit’s success,
and its efforts paid off.
I would
like to single out four major fields where the needed agreements have
been reached. It is true that there were no breakthrough decisions. However,
all the participants reconfirmed their commitment to continue efforts
to improve the global trade system, including work to reform
the WTO. The very fact that everyone confirmed the need
for the process and reaffirmed their readiness to work
along the lines is a positive development in itself.
Positions
have been coordinated, except for the United States, which always has
a special opinion. In fact, the US
