World leaders meeting in Washington on Saturday used the occasion of a financial crisis summit to get face-time with other powerbrokers in a flurry of more intimate, bilateral meetings. But heads of state and government hoping to get a photo-op or camera time with US president-elect Barack Obama were disappointed as he chose to hold off making his debut on the international stage.
The Democrat sent former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and ex-Republican lawmaker Jim Leach in his place to meet the foreign leaders, finance ministers and top bureaucrats on his behalf. Meanwhile, summit host and lame duck US President George W. Bush, chose to stand down from the world stage without any bilateral meetings to bid his fellow leaders farewell.
Even before the summit got under way on Friday evening with a working dinner, other leaders were busy getting face-time with their counterparts. Eager to boost his presence on the world stage in the face of flagging support at home, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso met on Friday with Britain's Gordon Brown, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Brown, increasingly casting himself as a saviour after a well-received bank bailout at home, took the occasion of being in Washington to meet with US financial powerbrokers. On Friday, he lunched with former US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan and later met with US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and was due to meet on Saturday with current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke as well as Chinese President Hu Jintao.
President Dmitry Medvedev, fresh from an EU summit in southern France, continued to pursue contacts with European leaders, meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain's Brown. Japan, China and South Korea's finance ministers agreed in talks on Friday to play "a pivotal role" in stabilising Asia's economy in a joint effort to fend off the impact of the global financial crisis.
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