GERMANY: DEMONSTRATORS PROTEST AGIANST RUSSIA'S CAMPAIGN IN CHECHENYA/ G8 FOREIGN MINISTERS TOUR BERLIN'S HISTORIC SITES/ FINANCE MINISTERS AND BANKING OFFICIALS MEET FOR INNAUGURAL G20 SUMMIT

Record ID: 347282

  • Title: GERMANY: DEMONSTRATORS PROTEST AGIANST RUSSIA'S CAMPAIGN IN CHECHENYA/ G8 FOREIGN MINISTERS TOUR BERLIN'S HISTORIC SITES/ FINANCE MINISTERS AND BANKING OFFICIALS MEET FOR INNAUGURAL G20 SUMMIT
  • Date: 16th December 1999
  • Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (DECEMBER 16, 1999) (REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) (NIGHTSHOTS) 1. WIDE/PAN OF BRANDENBURG GATE AND DEMONSTRATORS PROTESTING AGAINST RUSSIA'S INVOLVEMENT IN CHECHNYA 0.12 2. CU FLAGS IN FRONT OF BRANDENBURG GATE 0.17 3. PULL OUT MOSLEM WOMEN PROTESTERS 0.25 4. CU POSTER 0.29 5. SV MAN ADDRESSING PROTESTERS 0.35
  • Embargoed: 31st December 1999 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA1H2NEI1RWT2V7FUIX6GW6FVK3
  • Story Text: The Group of Eight Foreign Ministers have arrived in
    Berlin touring two historic sites before attending a working
    dinner.Demonstrations aimed at the Russian delegation
    protested against the Russian campaign in Chechnya.

    Also top financial officials from 20 major world economies
    have met in Berlin to draw up a framework for preventing the sorts
    of crises that have ripped through world markets in recent years and
    welcomed solid global growth.

    The G8 ministers first toured the Reichstag, or German
    Parliament, before taking a stroll through the historic
    Brandenburg Gate, symbol of German reunification on
    Thursday (December 16).

    Some one and a half hours earlier, about 1.000 people
    gathered at the Brandenburg Gate to demonstrate against
    Russia's bombardment of Chechnya.

    Organised by the "German Society for Threatened Peoples,"
    protesters called for a freezing of financial aid to Russia.

    Russia was included in the Group of Eight two years ago,
    not least thanks to German backing, in the big-power club that
    was then the Group of Seven -- the United States, Japan,
    Germany, Italy, France, Britain and Canada.

    German diplomats said Russia would be told the war in
    Chechnya could put membership of such bodies in doubt.

    Russia has gone some way towards mollifying the West by
    withdrawing an ultimatum to Grozny's civilians, although it
    insists it need not justify a campaign against "terrorists".

    As well as discussing Chechnya, Germany as host expects
    the meeting to agree to increased big-power cooperation on
    conflict prevention -- the original reason for the gathering.

    Finance ministers and central bank governors
    from 20 of the world's top economies agreed on a tight
    catalogue of policies that could help shore up economies
    against financial upheaval at a summit in Berlin on Thursday
    (December 17).

    For many participants, the fact that the agreement had
    been struck around a table seating economies as diverse as the
    United States and Indonesia was the real triumph.

    The Berlin meeting, the inaugural meeting for the G20
    group, drew together around one table both established world
    economic powers from the Group of Seven and a string of less
    developed or powerful economies.

    The trigger for the creation of the forum, the brainchild
    of U.S.Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, was recent crises
    such as that which began in South-East Asia in 1997 and almost
    pulled even established world markets into dire straits.

    The G20 said strong domestic policies which reassured
    financial markets and kept private investors interested in
    putting money into an economy were important as they would
    ensure the internal strength of an economy and also make it
    less vulnerable to contagion if a similar economy had
    problems.

    "Sound national economic and financial policies are
    central to building an international financial system that is
    less prone to crises," the statement said.

    The forum groups the G7 industrialised nations -- Britain,
    Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States --
    plus 13 emerging and other economies -- Argentina, Australia,
    Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi
    Arabia, South Africa, Turkey as well as the European Union.

    European Central Bank President Wim Duisenberg, outgoing
    IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus and World Bank head
    James Wolfensohn were also in attendance.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register