British PM joins world leaders for Australia's G20 summit

Updated: 2014-11-14 09:34

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BRISBANE, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron joined his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott on Friday in Sydney ahead of the weekend's G20 summit in Brisbane.

He was one of a number of Group of 20 leaders who have started to arrive in Australia for the important economic meeting.

The two leaders walked around Sydney Opera House before Cameron told reporters that infrastructure should go ahead with "massive amounts of investment and partnership between Britain and Australia."

"We think it's one of Britain's great success stories and strengths that we welcome foreign investment," he said.

Cameron also announced the rollout to seven new countries of a super-priority system allowing business leaders, investors and wealthy tourists to obtain visas within 24 hours, in the hope of attracting high-spending visitors to Britain.

The British prime minister will head to Canberra later on Friday where he will address the Australian federal parliament before heading to Queensland to hold talks separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi over the weekend.

On Thursday night, Crown Prince Salman of Saudi Arabia and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff arrived in Brisbane. They joined International Monetary Fund (IMF) head Christine Lagarde and South African President Jacob Zuma, who had already landed in Brisbane.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was another expected early arrival while Putin will arrive Friday night.

High-profile landings on Friday will include dignitaries from South Korea, India, Indonesia, Canada and Japan. A special high- security area at the Brisbane international terminal will also host the president of Mauritania, Mohamed Aziz.

Also on Friday night, Spanish President Mariano Rajoy Brey, German President Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping will touch down.

U.S. President Barack Obama will arrive Saturday morning after attending the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and related meetings in Myanmar.

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