The agreement reached at the G20 summit in London to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion is quite an achievement. It is not a perfect agreement, of course, and only time will tell if these measures will help the world economy recover. However, world stock markets rose sharply as soon as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown revealed that a deal had been reached, so that is an encouraging sign.
The G20 nations - consisting of industrialised and developing countries - represent around 90 per cent of global gross national product, 80 per cent of world trade as well as two-thirds of the world's population, so the London agreement certainly carries weight.
Credit must be given to Gordon Brown - who always looks happier playing the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer rather than Prime Minister - who managed to broker this deal. Whether the British electorate will appreciate this at the ballot box is another matter.
"This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words, but with a plan for global recovery and for reform and with a clear timetable for its delivery," Mr Brown said.
US President Barack Obama - who played a key role at the summit and was the centre of attraction - hailed it as a historic turning point in the pursuit of world economic recovery.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the conclusions of the G20 summit were "more than we could have hoped for", while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the agreement was "a very, very good, almost historic compromise".
Perhaps more significantly, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said rich countries had engaged with emerging nations on "equal terms" to achieve a positive result.
In a nutshell, the G20 agreed to give the International Monetary Fund an extra $750 billion to help countries with troubled economies and committed about $250 billion to boost global trade and fight protectionism. A 'name and shame' policy as well as sanctions will be adopted towards secretive tax havens, and there is to be tougher global financial regulation. Furthermore, the world's poorest countries are to be eligible for an extra $100 billion that international development banks can lend them.
Other steps agreed to are that bankers pay and bonuses will be subject to stricter controls, a new Financial Stability Board will be set up to work with the IMF to provide an early warning mechanism for the financial system, and there will be greater regulation of hedge funds and credit ratings agencies and a common approach (but no joint plan) to cleaning up banks' toxic assets.
Of course, the deal on its own is unlikely to change the global economic climate in the short term and a lot will depend on the economic stimulus packages carried out by individual countries, which is estimated to amount to $5 trillion by next year.
There was no co-ordinated economic stimulus plan agreed to at the summit, something the French and Germans were opposed to, so it is obviously important for member states to honour their pledges over their particular stimulus packages.
While the G20 might not have signalled the beginning of a new world economic order - critics will say more should have been achieved, such as further reforms at the IMF in return for the increased funding - the summit did signal that a new way of running the world economy may be emerging. Obama hinted at this in London when he said the Washington consensus of unfettered globalisation and deregulation was now outdated.
Significantly, the G20 nations agreed to continue to meet regularly to monitor the progress made in dealing with the global economic crisis and a follow-up meeting is scheduled for later this year.
The summit was also important due to the bilateral meetings Obama had with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Obama and Medvedev announced that they intended to reach an agreement to reduce their nuclear warheads by December to a number much lower than what Presidents Bush and Putin had agreed in 2002. Under that agreement, known as the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, deployed warheads are to be cut to between 1,700 and 2,200 on each side by 2012.
Another development is that Obama and his South Korean counterpart agreed that a "stern, united response" must follow any rocket launch by N. Korea, which is expected shortly. Pyongyang says the rocket will launch a communications satellite, but the US, South Korea and Japan believe this violates a UN resolution, prohibiting North Korea from ballistic activity and that the evidence suggests N. Korea is planning to test a Taepodong-2 missile capable of reaching Alaska.
Japan has already said any N. Korean object entering its airspace will be shot down, while N. Korea's military has vowed a "thunderbolt of revenge" if Japan tries to shoot down the rocket.
Let's hope a sudden escalation on the Korean peninsula won't overshadow the good work achieved at the G20.