WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is appealing to the world’s major economies not to waver in their efforts to support a sustained rebound from the near collapse of the global economic system in the fall of 2008.
“We must act together to strengthen the recovery,” Obama said in his letter to other leaders of the Group of 20 major industrial countries, written in advance of next week’s summit meeting in Toronto.
But Obama’s appeal for unity underscored a number of divisions that have developed between the major powers. Many European nations, rattled by the debt crisis that had engulfed Greece, have started to trim their own budget deficits while China has rejected calls by the United States to allow its currency to rise in value as a way to boost sales of American and other foreign products in China.
Obama referred in an oblique way to those disagreements in the letter, avoiding mentioning other countries by name.
“Our highest priority in Toronto must be to safeguard and strengthen the recovery,” he said in the letter, which the White House released on Friday. “We worked exceptionally hard to restore growth; we cannot let it falter or lose strength now.”
Obama called on the other nations to “reaffirm our unity of purpose to provide the policy support necessary to keep economic growth strong.”
The president noted that “significant weaknesses” linger among the major and developing economic powers.
