Attendance
G-20 leaders began gathering in London on 1 April 2009. Before leaving for the London Summit, French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested that if a meaningful deal was not agreed France would walk out of the summit echoing the "empty chair" gesture of then-French President Charles de Gaulle in 1965. At a joint press conference in London, Brown and Obama said that suggestions of a rift were exaggerated. Sarkozy attended a separate press conference with Merkel in which both repeated calls for the summit to agree on more stringent regulation of financial markets and restated their firm opposition to further financial stimulus packages.
On the evening of 1 April the leaders attended a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by Elizabeth II. During a photograph she lightly rebuked the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for shouting too loudly in an effort to attract the attention of President Obama. The story was featured heavily in the Italian media, and was used by opponents to lambast Berlusconi. After the palace reception, the leaders dined at 10 Downing Street where the food was cooked by Jamie Oliver.
The summit proper began on the morning of 2 April and took place at the Excel Centre in Custom House, east London.
Read more about this topic: 2009 G-20 London Summit
Famous quotes containing the word attendance:
“We, too, had good attendance once,
Hearers and hearteners of the work;
Aye, horsemen for companions,
Before the merchant and the clerk
Breathed on the world with timid breath.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)