23-FEB-1993 09:43 CETTED-IJJ0
FCO NEWS DEPT
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071 270 3734
P.09
TRANSCRIPT B - GUS O'DONNELL/FRANCIS CORNISH/MARK FELLEW BACKGROUND BRIEFING LONDON 22 FEBRUARY 1993
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On the G7 Summit, Jacques Delors proposal for world leaders, the problem with these things is that summits take a lot of
preparation and we have the Tokyo Summit coming up in July.
I am
not clear what a summit at the level of Heads of Government could
do unless it was prepared very well so on that basis that is where
we start off and my understanding is that the general feeling
among other G7 Heads has not been all that positive towards the
idea. If you just get the Heads together without actually having
done some work as to what they might produce, it could be
counter-productive because expectations will be raised without
anything there to back them up.
On Russia, there is a real issue here and one on which we share
information about how far the reform process is succeeding and how
can help that reform process. As you know, we have pushed very
hard. We indeed sponsored Russia through the IMF, got them in as
members of the IMF, have been keen on getting the programme up and
running.
There are problems. On the economic side, we are extremely
worried about inflation rates in Russia. We are concerned about
various issues on the economic side but also about things like
nuclear safety and I think that may be an issue that comes up in
our discussions with the Americans as well.
I think they want to know the sort of political economy of it all,
how far we see President Yeltsin being able to carry through the