British Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet today with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is the first of four meetings with world leaders that Blair will undergo within the next 48 hours. After Moscow he will visit Berlin, Luxembourg and finally Paris.
As Britain is to Chair the upcoming G8 summit, Blair is now meeting the world leaders with a main focus to seek backing for his Africa aid plan and climate change.
The meetings also follow in the series of meetings he has recently undertaken with Italian Premier Berlusconi and U.S. President George Bush. During the meeting with Berlusconi, Blair gained Italian support on both issues, however with President Bush an agreement on climate change was not achieved, and a full agreement on Africa aid has also not been secured.
Putin seems to have been supportive of the UK's Africa initiative as well as on climate change, since last year when Russia signed the Kyoto protocol.
From Moscow, Blair is due to travel on to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Those talks are expected to focus on the G-8 summit, after which he will hold consultations in Paris and Luxembourg on Tuesday ahead of the EU leaders' summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels.
Germany and France have already promised to double aid for the poorest countries. They participated at a G8 finance ministers meeting on Saturday, at which they agreed to immediately wipe out 100 percent of the debts that 18 countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa, owe to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the African Development Bank.
