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Putin to hold regular consultations with G20 colleagues on summit’s closing day

Putin will also attend two working meetings on the closing day’s programme

BRISBANE, November 16 /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold consultations with G20 leaders on the final day of the G20 summit on Sunday.

Putin will also attend two working meetings on the closing day’s programme. The first one will be devoted to sustainable development of global economy.

“Ways of strengthening the world financial architecture, modernization of the taxation system and mechanisms of bank regulation will be the main topics on the agenda. Special attention will be paid to the IMF reform,” the Russian president’s aide Yuri Ushakov said.

A decision to start the IMF reform was passed as early as in 2010. The process, however, has been blocked by the United States.

Svetlana Lukash, the Russian Sherpa in the G20, said earlier that there were various options of how to start implementing the 2010 decisions.

“One of the easiest solutions would be to divide this /package/ of decisions in several parts. The 2010 decisions are an integrated package of agreements, on amendments to the IMF charter and the doubling of the fund’s capital. According to the IMF regulations, a various number of votes should be collected in favor of each of the decisions before they could take effect,” Lukash explained. For example, a decision to double the capital needs to be approved by 70% of the votes while the decision on amending the charter needs to be approved by 85% of the votes.

Lukash noted that the package could be divided in several parts exclusively by decision of the IMF administration without agreement from the U.S. Congress.

The second G20 meeting will be devoted to energy problems.

According to President Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, its participants will discuss how to reform the international energy architecture with consideration for the interests of all the participants in the market - developed and developing markets; manufacturers, consumers and transit countries, Ushakov said.

Turkey, which is going to be the G20’s next president, will present its vision of the group’s priorities and will set forth the goals and objectives of its 2015 presidency.

Meanwhile President Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, has denied media speculations that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to leave the summit ahead of time because of the growing pressure from Western leaders over the Ukraine crisis. “This is absolute nonsense. This subject is being constantly raised by our interlocutors. This is just a normal routine,” Peskov explained.

After the two meetings, Putin will leave Brisbane for Russia. The Russian leader will end his 8-day trip that apart from Brisbane has taken him to Beijing and Vladivostok.

G20 is a leading international forum specializing in global economy and finance. It consists of 19 countries, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, China, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Turkey, France, South Africa, Japan and the European Union.

The G20 countries collectively account for more than 80% of world GDP and 80% of world trade and make up two thirds of global population.

Turkey will hold the G20 rotating presidency in 2015.