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Humor Title: Frogs beg Barry Obama to save Europe “We need the leadership of Barack Obama,” Mr. Sarkozy said after the two leaders huddled to start the meeting of the world’s industrialized and large developing nations. “We need the solidarity and support of the United States of America.” The French president, host of the summit, which is threatening to be consumed with the unraveling of a bailout for Greece, met with Mr. Obama within an hour of Air Force One’s landing at the French Riviera. Mr. Obama steadfastly has maintained that the European Union has the resources to resolve the debt burdens of Greece and other nations without outside help. But EU officials, seeking the cash to boost their bailout fund to $1.4 trillion, are asking for investments from China, Japan and other sources. At his joint appearance with Mr. Sarkozy, Mr. Obama said the EU “has made some important steps toward a comprehensive solution.” “We spent most of our conversation focused on strengthening the global economic recovery so we’re creating jobs for our people and stabilizing the financial markets around the world,” Mr. Obama said. “The most important aspect of our task over the next two days is to resolve the financial crisis here in Europe. “But here at the G-20, we’re going to have to flesh out more of the details about how the plan will be fully implemented,” Mr. Obama said. “We also discussed the situation in Greece and how we can work to help resolve that situation as well. The United States will continue to be a partner with the Europeans to resolve these challenges.” Just prior to the summit, Mr. Sarkozy held an emergency meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to discourage Greece from holding a referendum on its bailout plan. Mr. Papandreou’s surprise announcement to hold a vote threatens to scuttle the deal and risks the spread of default to nations such as Italy, Spain and Portugal. Mr. Obama also briefly addressed the growing nuclear threat from Iran, saying he and Mr. Sarkozy agreed “on the need to maintain the unprecedented international pressure on Iran to meet its obligations.” An international nuclear monitoring body is expected to release a report next week citing Iranian progress in developing nuclear weapons. The U.S. is working behind the scenes with Russia and China to take more punitive action against Iran in the U.N. Security Council. The two-day summit in this wealthy, glitzy resort city comes as protests in the United States and around the world target the growing imbalance between the wealthy and the poor. Protesters at the G-20 are being kept miles away from the center of Cannes, where the meetings are being held. Mr. Obama’s motorcade did not pass any protesters on its 30-minute drive to Cannes from the airport in Nice. After leaving Mr. Sarkozy, Mr. Obama met with Mrs. Merkel separately and praised her leadership in the debt crisis. “Central to our discussions at the G-20 is how we achieve better global work and put people back to work. That means we’re gonna have to resolve the situation here in Europe,” Mr. Obama said. “And without Angela’s leadership, we wouldn’t already have made the progress that we’ve seen.” As Mr. Obama held a working lunch with world leaders, there were fresh reports that Mr. Papandreou might resign or that the referendum would be scrapped. The Greek leader called an emergency Cabinet meeting Thursday amid speculation he would not survive a vote of confidence on Friday. Regardless of who is leading Greece, “the implications remain the same,” said Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national security adviser. “The plan that the Europeans agreed to last week involves actions to deal with the Greek situation but involves a range of other steps, too … all of which are going to need to be done irrespective of individual political circumstances in different countries,” Mr. Rhodes said. “We know what the road map is.” The turmoil in Athens is eclipsing the G-20 agenda and contributing to the belief that Mr. Obama is being relegated to the sidelines at this conference. Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel said Greece will not be allowed to remain as part of the eurozone if it does not comply with the bailout deal reached a week ago in Brussels. That plan provides Greece with a second bailout with the International Monetary Fund, while bondholders must accept a 50 percent writedown on the value of Greek debt. And while Mr. Obama pledged his support to find a solution, White House aides made clear the U.S. is not contemplating an infusion of cash for the EU’s bailout fund. “There are many different ways to be supportive,” said Michael Froman, White House deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. “Our ability to contribute, our ability to lead, our ability to influence the outcome of these sorts of issues is not tied necessarily to having the American taxpayer pay for every problem.” White House aides said they haven’t picked up any new intelligence that China will come to the aid of the EU, but G-20 leaders are working on a draft comminque that urges its members to move more rapidly toward greater exchange-rate flexibility, language that generally is aimed at China’s undervalued currency. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner raised the issue Thursday in a meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju. “It’s very much been part of the discussions here,” said Lael Brainard, a U.S. Treasury official who described China’s movement on the matter as “a constructive shift.” Obama administration officials and others G-20 nations have been pushing China, whose currency is artificially low, to do more to help the global economy by encouraging more consumption at home. China’s currency also has been a target of complaints in Congress, including a largely symbolic measure passed by the Senate last month. On another agenda item for the conference, Mr. Sarkozy said he and Mr. Obama had reached “common ground, or at least a common analysis,” on a financial transaction tax, which would set minimum tax rates for financial transactions in the 27-nation EU beginning in 2014. The British have been adamantly opposed to the tax. Mrs. Merkel, especially, has been pushing for the tax, which would raise about $79 billion per year, to make financial institutions pay for contributing to the economic crisis. The German chancellor has been critical of Mr. Obama for failing to be more punitive against the financial sector. Mr. Obama has proposed a “responsibility fee” on banks with more than $50 billion in assets. But Mr. Froman downplayed the suggestion that the leaders had broken new ground on such a tax. “The president made clear he shares the objectives that Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy have in ensuring that the financial sector contributes an appropriate share to the resolution of the crisis,” he said. “There is broad consensus … about the ability of each to pursue this in their own way.”
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