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Obama Meets Leaders of South Korea, China, Germany

11 November 2010 04:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. President Barack Obama is holding meetings with the leaders of China, South Korea, and Germany Thursday as he seeks to navigate tough talks on currencies and trade, APA reports quoting voanews.com website.
President Obama is in Seoul, South Korea, along with 20 leaders of the worldâ€™s largest economies, known as the G20, for a summit beginning Thursday evening.
Trade balances and currency exchange rates have emerged as top issues at the summit.
The summitâ€™s host, South Korean president Lee Myung-bak, acknowledged Thursday how difficult it might be to reach agreement at the gathering. Speaking before the summitâ€™s opening Thursday, he said member countries are divided on the key issue of whether or not to set numerical targets for current account imbalances.
On Wednesday, Mr. Obama argued that the burden to fix large trade imbalances and currency disputes is on global leaders as well as the United States.
In a letter addressed to the G20 leaders, Mr. Obama said the prosperity of the United Statesâ€™ economic partners is linked to Americaâ€™s prosperity. He said all nations must work together to ensure a global recovery.
Mr. Obama said increasing consumer demand in countries with surpluses, and increasing savings in countries with deficits, can spur strong global growth.
Mr. Obama could be on the defensive at the summit, due to the U.S. central bankâ€™s plan to buy $600 billion in long-term government bonds. Some nations say this will give American goods an unfair advantage on world markets.
Another top issue at the summit is expected to be debates about currency values, including that of China. China is under pressure to allow the value of its currency to rise. That would make its exports more expensive and reduce its huge trade surplus, which rose by more than 50 percent in the last month alone.