ROME, 13 June 2008 — While British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has confirmed his attendance at a summit Saudi Arabia has called to address soaring global oil prices, the United States was evaluating the possible outcome of such a gathering.
“The president’s first question is what are we going to try to accomplish,” US President George W. Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters. “Because if you’re going to have a meeting like that, there’s obviously going to be great expectations that something will come of it that will have an impact on oil prices to reduce them and stabilize markets,” he said.
Hadley declined to say whether Bush himself was open to attending the gathering on June 22 in Jeddah hosted by Saudi Arabia.
“There are expectations that have been generated and it is important that those expectations not be unrealized because that in itself will have an effect on oil prices and the markets,” Hadley said.
He said that Bush was discussing the upcoming meeting with European leaders he was visiting on a weeklong farewell tour.
In London, Prime Minister Brown said he expected no short-term output rise from Jeddah summit, but urged the world to work on a long-term, coordinated energy strategy.
Confirming that he would attend the summit, Brown said the meeting was unlikely to result in any production increase, but that did not diminish the need for consumers and producers to tackle the energy crisis.
“The Saudis have now agreed that they will convene a high level meeting in Jeddah to address these issues. I strongly welcome this initiative,” Brown told reporters at his monthly news conference.
“I am not going to Jeddah expecting there is going to be a short-term change in production.”
If necessary, he said, Britain would be willing to host a follow-up conference as the prime minister sought to keep Britain at the heart of any solution to the issue.
“I will travel to Jeddah to work on it with King Abdullah. I will propose to the king that if necessary I will be happy to convene a follow-up summit at heads-of-government level in London as a venue.”
Brown has repeatedly emphasized the need for a more coordinated response to rising food and energy prices in recent days, saying after a meeting with EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso last week that the 27-nation bloc needed to draw up a joint strategy to tame rising costs.