“I expect three important results from St. Petersburg. We will push for a US-Russia deal on Damascus." Prime Minister Enrico Letta had hoped for it a few days ago in an interview, and in fact it will be the case of Syria that will take center stage at the G20 which is being inaugurated today in St. Petersburg.
For reasons of force majeure, Syria risks overshadowing the original objective of the St. Petersburg summit, that of identifying a way to revive the still timid growth of the world economy and above all to ensure that it produces jobs.
The situation would be different if the Damascus regime had not resorted to chemical weapons two weeks ago and if the summit were not chaired by Vladimir Putin, the Syrian regime's main supporter and fervent opponent of the military attack proposed by France and the United States.
However, the analysis of the world economic situation will still be examined by the summit: a report for the leaders of the Monetary Fund, which will be presented by its director, Christine Lagarde, highlights the vulnerability of emerging economies to changes in monetary policy in the progress, notably the forthcoming tapering of monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve.
