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Do We
Need G 8 Summits?
BY
RAMESH JAURA IDN *
Does
the world need the Group of Eight - G8 - and its annual summits with
alternating venues? Will it not be more in tune with the multi-layered
and intertwined global challenges to do away with the G8 in its
present format and go for theme-oriented rounds of discussions two to
three days ahead of the UN General Assembly that meets every year in
September in New York? |
Such
’summits’ would be organised by the democratically elected bureau of UN
General Assembly and ensure that heads of state and government hold
multilateral and bilateral meetings as part of such gatherings.
These questions did not interest participants in the G8 summit in Toyako on
the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. But the major western industrial
democracies and Russia that comprise G8 would do well to transcend their
narrow and group interests and give some serious thought to whether their
gatherings pave the path for policies that do justice to the compelling needs
of the world as a whole.
Though the issue was not on their official agenda, at the behest of French
President Nicolas Sarkozy the G8 did discuss the group’s expansion to G13 to
include the ‘emerging major economies’ (EMEs) Brazil, China, India, Mexico
and South Africa. But a brief debate revealed that the majority of the G8
members was of the view that the present format should not be altered. Among
the reasons given was that the G8 is a grouping of nations that share some
common values. It was also argued that enlargement of the G8 will have an
adverse effect on the quality of discussions.
While the majority of G8 members wish to remain an exclusive club, there is
obviously a consensus that dialogue with some of the major non-G8 countries is
of critical importance. With this in view, Japan had invited 14 heads of state
and government from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
But what about the five EMEs, widely known as G5, though dubbed as ‘Outreach
5′ by Germany that organised the G8 summit last year in Heiligendamm
last year? Do they want a G13?
The G5 joint political declaration does not give an unequivocal answer to
that. But it leaves no doubt that the G5 do not want to be regarded as
“outcasts”. They consider themselves powerful nations who still happen to
be in the processes of economic development and poverty alleviation. But they
want to be treated as equals.
The G5 statement emphasises the group’s commitment to South-South
cooperation. It says that its participation in the Heiligendamm Process pushed
by Germany last year does not signal G5’s abandonment of a Southern agenda.
As major developing countries, the G5 affirmed its ‘’shared
responsibility” to broaden the reach and impact of these efforts based on
principles of ”equality and mutual benefit”. The G5 committed itself to
strengthening multilateralism, chiefly through the United Nations and its
affiliate bodies.
Read
more articles analysing the G8 Summit in Hokkaido Toyako July 7-9 on Internet:
http://www.global-perspectives.info/download/2008/pdf/ausgabe_0708.pdf
Ramesh
Jaura is chief editor of the Globalom Media
group, president of Euforic-Europe's
Forum on International Cooperation in Maastricht (The Netherlands) and
Director of IPS-Inter
Press Service Europe in Berlin.
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