I should add, by the way, that to the extent that all countries are participating in promoting growth, that also strengthens the arguments that we can make in our respective countries about the importance of world trade — the sense that this isn’t a situation where each country is only exporting and never importing, but rather that there’s a balance in how we approach these issues. And, again, I’ve actually been pleased with the degree to which there’s common agreement on that front.
PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Tom, if you were asking this question in a situation where America had done a fiscal stimulus and no one other country except Britain had followed it, then your question would have some legitimacy. But, look, what has happened around the world in the last few months is country after country have contributed to the biggest fiscal stimulus, the biggest injection of resources, the biggest amount of new investment provided by governments into the world economy in the history of the world. And we are in the midst of the biggest fiscal boost that the world economy has ever had.
And so Germany has invested $80 billion; France invested $25 billion; we’ve invested; other countries in the European have invested. Different countries have their different times for announcing their decisions. Some will do it in their budget, some will do it be financial statement. The combination of all of this, as you will see when you get our communiqué tomorrow, is the most substantial fiscal stimulus, something on the order of $2 trillion — indeed, more than that. And that is the world coming together to cut interest rates, the world coming together to give a boost to the economy, and of course, the world coming together to deal with the other problem, which is restructuring our financial systems for the future.
And I think it is remarkable that things that people could not have thought possible 10 years ago, even 5 years ago, that you have this coordinated action from all the countries. It is remarkable this is happening. Of course, we want to push it forward tomorrow, and I believe we will.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Where’s Caren? There you are. Hi, Caren.
Q Thank you, Mr. President, Prime Minister. You mentioned that you will be meeting later with Russian President Medvedev. What are your aims for that meeting? And could you elaborate on this idea of resetting U.S.-Russian relations? And also, does that mean, as Russia hopes, that you’re willing to give ground on issues like missile defense and NATO expansion?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, this will be the first time that I’m meeting with President Medvedev. I’m very much looking forward to the meeting. We’ve had a series of conversations on the telephone and exchanged letters.