Spain is pressing for a seat at next month’s emergency summit in Washington, a meeting called by the US to discuss the financial crisis. The Spanish government maintains that, as the eighth economic power in the world and a country with a stable financial system, it deserves its own place at the summit.
The summit involves the world’s 20 richest nations and biggest emerging economies, known as the Group of 20, and is scheduled to take place in Washington on November 15th. The group also takes in the 27 nation EU, of which Spain is a member.
The Group of 20 comprises the seven major industrialised nations (Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States) plus Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.
Between them, these nations account for 85% of the world’s economy and two-thirds of the world’s population. Madrid, however, feels that Spain deserves a seat at the table in its own right, not just as part of the EU, and is using all possible diplomatic channels to pursue this objective.