War On Terror Likely to Dominate G8 Summit
June 25, 2002
When the Group of Eight meets for their summit on Wednesday and Thursday in Kananaskis, Canada, one of the main topics on the agenda will be helping Russia to remove its atomic weapons and safely store the nuclear material. Other issues, such as financial aid to Africa, free trade, and the Middle East, will most likely be pushed to the side, as the US-led war on terrorism threatens to dominate the group’s discussion rounds.
Diplomats say senior Canadian officials are privately musing whether the G8 has become the G1, where the United States can do pretty much as it pleases while other nations stand on the sidelines. "We all fear that this will turn into an ‘everyone against Bush’ meeting, which is not good news," one senior G8 diplomat told Reuters news agency.
But at a pre-summit meeting with Canadian minister Jean Chrétien on Monday, German chancellor Gerhard Schröder said G8 leaders are united and share a consensus on supporting joint efforts to ensure that Russia’s nuclear weapons do not fall into the hands of terrorists. Leaders from Canada, Italy, France, Britain, Germany, Japan, the US and Russia will have two days of talks in the secluded Rocky Mountain resort to focus on this phase of the American war on terrorism.
Ten-Year Plan
On his visit to Berlin in May, the American president outlined a ten-year plan to drastically reduce Russia’s existing nuclear arsenal and provide safe storage for nuclear material. The plan calls for the United States, and the G8 members collectively, to each contribute $10 billion (10.3 billion euro) to the nuclear nonproliferation initiative.
The reduction of atomic missiles is part of the American war on terror. In the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the United States has increased efforts to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear, biological or chemical weapons of mass destruction.
The US is concerned that nuclear war heads or nuclear material that could turn conventional explosive devices into "dirty bombs" may fall into the hands of terrorists. One point of discussion among the G8 leaders will be which nuclear nations should be included in the program.
Still, the plan is unlikely to be ready for debate at the Kananaskis summit, in part because other countries are reluctant to hand over such large amounts of money, and Russia has not made it clear whether it would sign up for the deal.
Trade Without Frontiers
In whatever time remains for other issues, participants are expected to discuss the global economy and prospects for economic recovery.
Free trade will likely be brought up in President Bush’s presence. In pre-summit discussions Chancellor Schröder and Prime Minister Chrétien also criticized trade subsidies and trade barriers as a major obstacle to free international trade in their Monday meeting. Recently imposed US steel tariffs and a farm subsidy plan have caused friction between the US and its European allies.
But the German chancellor downplayed the trade dispute between Washington and Brussels. “The differences will soon be resolved,” he said.
A New Partnership With Africa
If Canadian head of state Chrétien has his way, the summit will also take a closer look at developing a new partnership between the G8 nations and Africa in terms of financial aid.
Chrétien wants the second day of the summit to be devoted to a G8 Africa Action Plan which includes measures to help fight poverty and control the HIV and AIDS crisis. The plan calls for an ambitious annual foreign investment of $64 billion, more than seven times the total amount of African investment in 1999.
The plan "will be designed to help African governments that are committed to working with, and on behalf of, all of their citizens," said Chrétien
The Prime Minister emphasized that despite the war on terror and the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, the summit will not diverge from its focus on Africa. However, President Bush has not come out with any statements on the topic, and his speech on Monday unveiling a new Middle East policy could further shift the summit’s focus away from Africa.
Pre-Summit Schedule
After Monday’s press conference with Prime Minister Chrétien, Chancellor Schröder spent Tuesday in Montréal giving a speech before the Conférence de Montréal, a gathering of high-ranking representatives from the worlds of economics, politics and science. Afterwards Schröder visited the Canadian rail technology corporation Bombardier.
Earlier this year, Chancellor Schröder was instrumental in preventing the closure of the German branch of Bombardier in the town of Ammendorf in Saxony-Anhalt. The plant, in one of Germany’s weakest economic regions, had been threatened with closure and the loss of some 900 jobs until the Chancellor stepped in.
The Chancellor will arrive at Kananaskis on Tuesday night where conference participants will get together for informal talks before the official opening on Wednesday.