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[[Image:060716 bush leaders orig.jpg|thumb|right|300px|G8 leaders. L to R:Italian Prime Minister [[Romano Prodi]]; German Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]]; British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]]; French President [[Jacques Chirac]]; Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]]; U.S. President [[George W. Bush]]; Japanese Prime Minister [[Junichiro Koizumi]]; Canadian Prime Minister [[Stephen Harper]]; European Council President [[Matti Vanhanen]]; European Commission President [[José Manuel Barroso]]]]
[[Image:060716 bush leaders orig.jpg|thumb|right|300px|G8 leaders. L to R:Italian Prime Minister [[Romano Prodi]]; German Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]]; British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]]; French President [[Jacques Chirac]]; Russian President [[Vladimir Putin]]; U.S. President [[George W. Bush]]; Japanese Prime Minister [[Junichiro Koizumi]]; Canadian Prime Minister [[Stephen Harper]]; European Council President [[Matti Vanhanen]]; European Commission President [[José Manuel Barroso]]]]
The composition of the G8 summit is a perennial topic. The G8 summits after 1997 considered the [[President of the European Commission]] as a permanently welcome participant in all meetings and decision-making, which means that this G8 summit has nine essential participants.<ref name="reuters_what"/>
The composition of the G8 summit is a perennial topic. The G8 summits after 1997 considered the [[President of the European Commission]] as a permanently welcome participant in all meetings and decision-making, which means that this G8 summit has nine essential participants.<ref name="reuters_what"/>
===Permanent G8+1 participants===
===Permanent G8 participants===
The G8 summit was the first for Canadian Prime Minister [[Stephen Harper]] and German Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]]; and it was the last G8 summit for French President [[Jacques Chirac]].
The G8 summit was the first for Canadian Prime Minister [[Stephen Harper]] and German Chancellor [[Angela Merkel]]; and it was the last G8 summit for French President [[Jacques Chirac]].


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* {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} '''[[United Kingdom]]''' [[Tony Blair]], [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]]
* {{flagicon|United Kingdom}} '''[[United Kingdom]]''' [[Tony Blair]], [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]]
* {{flagicon|USA}} '''[[United States]]''' [[George W. Bush]], [[President of the United States|President]]
* {{flagicon|USA}} '''[[United States]]''' [[George W. Bush]], [[President of the United States|President]]
+
⚫
* {{flagicon|EU}} '''[[European Union]]''' [[José Manuel Barroso]], [[President of the European Commission|Commission]], and [[Matti Vanhanen]], [[President of the European Council|Council]]<ref>[http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2006stpetersburg/delegations.html Delegation information]</ref>


===Invited (partial participation)===
===Invited (partial participation)===
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* [[Image:Flag of WHO.svg|22px|WHO]] '''[[World Health Organization]]''' [[Anders Nordström]], Director-General
* [[Image:Flag of WHO.svg|22px|WHO]] '''[[World Health Organization]]''' [[Anders Nordström]], Director-General
* <!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[Image:Wto logo.png|22px]] -->'''[[World Trade Organization]]''' [[Pascal Lamy]], Director-General
* <!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[Image:Wto logo.png|22px]] -->'''[[World Trade Organization]]''' [[Pascal Lamy]], Director-General
⚫
* {{flagicon|EU}} '''[[European Union]]''' [[José Manuel Barroso]], [[President of the European Commission|Commission]], and [[Matti Vanhanen]], [[President of the European Council|Council]]<ref>[http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2006stpetersburg/delegations.html Delegation information]</ref>


==Priorities==
==Priorities==

Revision as of 21:25, 10 April 2009

32nd G8 summit
32nd G8 Summit official logo
Host countryRussia
DatesJuly 15 – July 17,

The 32nd summit of the G8 group of industrialised nations took place from July 15 to July 17, 2006 outside Saint Petersburg, Russia. The venue was the Constantine Palace, which is located in Strelna on the Gulf of Finland.[1][2] This was the first time Russia served as host nation for a G8 summit.

Overview

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition of Russia.[3] In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.[4] The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.[5]

The G8 summits during the twenty-first century have inspired widespread debates, protests and demonstrations; and the two- or three-day event becomes more than the sum of its parts, elevating the participants, the issues and the venue as focal points for activist pressure.[6]

Composition of summit leaders

G8 leaders. L to R:Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; British Prime Minister Tony Blair; French President Jacques Chirac; Russian President Vladimir Putin; U.S. President George W. Bush; Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi; Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper; European Council President Matti Vanhanen; European Commission President José Manuel Barroso

The composition of the G8 summit is a perennial topic. The G8 summits after 1997 considered the President of the European Commission as a permanently welcome participant in all meetings and decision-making, which means that this G8 summit has nine essential participants.[4]

Permanent G8 participants

The G8 summit was the first for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel; and it was the last G8 summit for French President Jacques Chirac.

Invited (partial participation)

Other non-G8 leaders were invited to attend and participate in the summit talks.

National leaders

Heads of international organizations

Leaders of the major international organizations were invited to attend the summit.

Priorities

Heads of delegations in a working session

Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda for negotiations, which take place primarily amongst multi-national civil servants in the weeks before the summit itself, leading to a joint declaration which all countries can agree to sign. Energy security, education, and the fight against infectious diseases were the main issues, with the conflict between Israel and Lebanon also attracting the attention of world leaders. [8]

Issues

The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions.[5] This summit was primarily an economic forum for the global economic powerhouses; and the focus of this G8 Summit was discussion of economic issues. Some of the pressing items on the agenda: [8]

  • Open trade between Russia and the United States, including discussion of Russian entry into the World Trade Organization
  • Multi-billion dollar aircraft manufacturing contracts, in light of strategy shifts at Airbus and Boeing and worsening airline business performance
  • Free energy markets, especially regarding Russia and former Soviet republics, as well as petroleum from the Middle East
    • Nigeria, Venezuela, and the Persian Gulf regions have all had reduced energy exports in the past weeks due to various political and technical issues
    • Rights for exploration and exploitation of natural gas in Russia and the North Atlantic Ocean / Baltic Sea
    • Alternative energy forms, especially relaxing nuclear power regulations; and development of hydrogen as an economically viable energy platform
    • Security — both militarily and financially ensuring the future in energy supplies
  • Discussion of economic impacts of global instability, drugs, and terrorism
  • Education priorities for developed nations, especially encouraging businesses to support education
  • Global system to monitor and contain infectious diseases

Israel-Lebanon crisis

The agenda set up by Russian President Vladimir Putin was largely overshadowed by the continuing violence in Israel and Lebanon. On 16 July, the leaders of the G8 nations agreed on a statement[9] calling for an end to the fighting and the release of the Israeli soldiers.[10] The leaders did not, however, go as far as calling for a ceasefire.

Citizens' responses and authorities' counter-responses

During the week leading up to the summit (7–11 July), police in Moscow, St Petersburg and elsewhere around Russia detained somewhere between a few dozen to possibly two hundred human rights and political activists. Many of them were sentenced to ten days' imprisonment, preventing them from participating in protests surrounding the official summit. The Russian Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin said that the allegations of harassment were "from the realms of supposition" and that the police's actions were "commensurate with the situation at hand".[11]

Cherie Blair, wife of the British Prime Minister and a human rights lawyer, slipped out of the summit in order to meet with local human rights groups and offer them free legal advice. Her leaving the summit was officially endorsed by Downing Street, and has reportedly furthered a rift between Britain and Russia.[12]

Accomplishments

The G8 summit is an international event which is observed and reported by news media, but the G8's continuing relevance after more than 30 years is somewhat unclear.[13] More than one analyst suggests that a G-8 summit is not the place to flesh out the details of any difficult or controversial policy issue in the context of a three-day event. Rather, the meeting offers an opportunity to bring a range of complex and sometimes inter-related issues. The G8 summit brings leaders together "not so they can dream up quick fixes, but to talk and think about them together."[14]

Infrastructure Consortium for Africa

The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) was established at the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland in the United Kingdom in 2005. Since that time, the ICA’s annual meeting is traditionally hosted by the country holding the Presidency of the G8 -- in Germany in 2006.[15]

Recorded conversations

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

During the summit, a conversation between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair was inadvertently recorded by a U.S. TV crew preparing for a live broadcast.[16]

The UK's Independent newspaper put a transcript of the conversation on its front page on 18 July, alongside some notes explaining the context of some of the comments; and the news story was widely disseminated by the international media.[17] The paper singled out Bush's apparent snub of an offer by Blair to mediate in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, in favour of sending Condoleezza Rice.[18] While Britons were upset with the perception that Blair was subordinate to Bush, in the US the fact that Bush used an expletive (claiming the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict would not have escalated if Syria would have pressured the Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit") was of greater concern. [19]

Business opportunity

For some, the G8 summit became a profit-generating event; as for example, the official G8 Summit magazines which have been published under the auspices of the host nations for distribution to all attendees since 1998.[20]

Notes

  1. ^ "A Brief Overview". G8Russia. 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
  2. ^ "PALACE OF CONGRESSES". G8Russia. 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
  3. ^ Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Globe and Mail (Toronto). July 5, 2008.
  4. ^ a b Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", July 3, 2008.
  5. ^ a b Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
  6. ^ "Influencing Policy on International Development: G8," BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.
  7. ^ Delegation information
  8. ^ a b "Address by Russian President Vladimir Putin to visitors to the official site of Russia's G8 Presidency in 2006". G8Russia. 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-19.
  9. ^ "Middle East". G8Russia. 2006-07-16. Retrieved 2006-07-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "Merkel: G-8 agrees on Mideast statement". Associated Press. Yahoo!. 2006-07-16. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "Dozens preemptively arrested in leadup to St Petersburg G8 Summit". Wikinews. 2006-07-12. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Blomfield, Adrian and Wilson, Graeme (2006-07-18). "Cherie Blair infuriates Russia with offer of help to activists". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Lee, Don. "On eve of summit, G-8's relevance is unclear," Los Angeles Times. July 6, 2008.
  14. ^ Feldman, Adam. "What's Wrong With The G-8," Forbes (New York). July 7, 2008.
  15. ^ "Meeting to Discuss Crisis Impact in Africa's Infrastructure Development," Afrol News. March 2, 2009.
  16. ^ "Transcript: Bush and Blair's unguarded chat". BBC News Online. 2006-07-18. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Ruttenberg, Jim. "Bush’s Policy Chit-Chat: Undiplomatic Prose," New York Times. July 18, 2006.
  18. ^ "'Yo, Blair!': Overheard at the G8". The Independent. 2006-07-18. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Bush frustration sparks expletive". CNN. 2006-07-17. Retrieved 2006-07-20. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)[dead link]
  20. ^ Prestige Media: "official" G8 Summit magazine

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 32nd G8 summit.

Press and media

Activism

Preceded by 32nd G8 summit
2006
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