Days of
‘Superfluous’ G8 are Numbered (Knack, Belgium)
“In 2012, holding
in-depth discussions about global economic problems with the conspicuous
absence of China, India, Brazil, Turkey, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Mexico
is decidedly unrealistic. … The G8’s final communiqué is superfluous literature. … The G8 no
longer has any raison d'être.”
NEW YORK: Motivated primarily by a fear of
demonstrations by anti-war activists and the Occupy Wall Street movement, the
G8 Summit moved from Chicago to Camp David, Maryland. President Obama’s great
gift to Rahm Emanuel, his former chief of staff and
now mayor of Chicago, to bring the great global political circus to the Windy
City, has therefore partly fallen through. Now only the NATO Summit is taking
place in Chicago.
And in any case, the great international political circus
that is the G8 has become a rather limited exhibition. The G8 consists of the
U.S., Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany, England, France and Italy. Missing from
the roll call are countries like China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, South
Korea, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
In 2012, holding in-depth discussions about global economic
problems with the conspicuous absence of the aforementioned countries is
decidedly unrealistic. Moreover, Russian President Vladimir Putin let it be
known that he couldn’t attend because he is “too busy.” He apparently he wants
his first foreign trip as newly-reelected president of Russia to be to China.
Putin’s absence is more than symbolic given the outdated reality of this G8.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
The G8’s final communiqué
is superfluous literature. They wish the best to euro countries in their
struggle to preserve monetary union (with including Greece in it); they want
growth, jobs and investment, they want sound public finances, international
free trade and respect for intellectual property. Great.
In the Obama camp one could learn that the president
expressed himself somewhat more sharply toward his European colleagues
regarding the euro crisis than the official communiqué suggests. To be specific, the U.S. president fears that
the consequences of the euro crisis could affect his re-election chances. Also
noted among European leaders was the near silence of German Chancellor Angela
Merkel. Relations between her and France’s new President François Hollande was described by some as “remarkably cool.”
As was emphatically discussed at sunny Camp David, the G8 no
longer has any raison
d'être. These types of international discussions obviously need to
take place, now more than ever, but in a different way.
There are two obvious possibilities: Either one chooses a
redefined G7 consisting of the U.S., the eurozone,
Japan, India, Brazil and Russia - and Europe in particular will have to
gradually reconcile with its greatly-reduced global importance; or we stay with
the existing G20, in which all the major countries in the global economy can
have their say. Everything else is just for show and hardly contributes little
or nothing.
