Английская Википедия:32nd G8 summit

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The 32nd G8 summit was held on 15–17 July 2006 in 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; and the nation's status as a full member of the G8 was confirmed.[3]

Overview

The Group of Seven (G7) is a forum which brings together the heads of the 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.[4] In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.[5] 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 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.[6]

The G8 summits during the 21st 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.[7]

Composition of summit leaders

Файл:World leaders at the 32nd G8 Summit, Strelna, Russia - 20060716.jpg
G8 leaders standing outside the Constantine Palace. Left to right: Romano Prodi, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Junichiro Koizumi, Stephen Harper, Matti Vanhanen, and José Manuel Barroso

The G8 is an annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The 32nd G8 summit was the first summit for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was also the last summit for French President Jacques Chirac and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Participants

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[8][9][10][11]

Core G8 members
Host state and leader are shown in bold text.
Member Represented by Title
Шаблон:Flagicon Canada Stephen Harper Prime Minister
Шаблон:Flagicon France Jacques Chirac President
Шаблон:Flagicon Germany Angela Merkel Chancellor
Шаблон:Flagicon Italy Romano Prodi Prime Minister
Шаблон:Flagicon Japan Junichiro Koizumi Prime Minister
Шаблон:Flagicon Russia Vladimir Putin President
Шаблон:Flagicon United Kingdom Tony Blair Prime Minister
Шаблон:Flagicon United States George W. Bush President
Шаблон:Flagicon European Union José Manuel Barroso Commission President
Matti Vanhanen Council President
G8+5 invitees (countries)
Member Represented by Title
Шаблон:Flagicon Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President
Шаблон:Flagicon China Hu Jintao President
Шаблон:Flagicon India Manmohan Singh Prime Minister
Шаблон:Flagicon Mexico Vicente Fox President
Шаблон:Flagicon South Africa Thabo Mbeki President
Guest invitees (international institutions)
Member Represented by Title
African Union Alpha Oumar Konaré Chairperson
Шаблон:Flagicon Commonwealth of Independent States Nursultan Nazarbayev Executive Secretary
Шаблон:Flagicon International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei Director General
International Energy Agency Claude Mandil Executive Director
Шаблон:Flagicon United Nations Kofi Annan Secretary-General
Шаблон:Flagicon UNESCO Kōichirō Matsuura Director-General
Шаблон:Flagicon image World Bank Paul Wolfowitz President
Шаблон:Flagicon World Health Organization Anders Nordström Director-General
World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy Director-General

Priorities

Файл:20060716 G8 St Petersburg 2006.jpg
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.[12]

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.[6] 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:[12]

  • Open trade between Russia and the United States, including discussion of Russian entry into the World Trade Organization
  • Multibillion-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[13] calling for an end to the fighting and the release of the Israeli soldiers.[14] 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 Internal 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".[15]

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.[16]

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.[17] More than one analyst suggests that a G8 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."[18]

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.[19]

Recorded conversations

Шаблон:Wikisource During the summit, a conversation between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair was inadvertently recorded by a US TV crew preparing for a live broadcast.[20]

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.[21] 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.[22] 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 conflict would not have escalated if Syria would have pressured Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit") was of greater concern.[23]

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.[24]

Controversial massage

During one meeting at the summit on 17 July, with all of the heads of state seated at a roundtable, President George W. Bush walked around the table to the position behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chair, reached out his hands to Merkel's shoulders and started to give her a massage. Merkel quickly raised her hands in protest and Bush immediately withdrew his hands and resumed walking around the table. A video of the massage became a hit on YouTube, where many commentators likened it to sexual harassment.[25]

Gallery

Core G8 participants

Notes

Шаблон:Reflist

References

External links

Шаблон:Commons category

Press and media

Activism

Шаблон:G8 summits

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  2. Шаблон:Cite web
  3. McLean, Iain et al. (2009). Шаблон:Google books
  4. Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders", Globe and Mail (Toronto). 5 July 2008. Шаблон:Webarchive
  5. Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", 3 July 2008.
  6. 6,0 6,1 Шаблон:Cite book
  7. "Influencing Policy on International Development: G8," Шаблон:Webarchive BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.
  8. Rieffel, Lex. "Regional Voices in Global Governance: Looking to 2010 (Part IV)", Шаблон:Webarchive Brookings. 27 March 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site). Шаблон:Webarchive
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  12. 12,0 12,1 Шаблон:Cite web
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  15. Шаблон:Cite news
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  17. Lee, Don. "On eve of summit, G-8's relevance is unclear," Los Angeles Times. 6 July 2008.
  18. Feldman, Adam. "What's Wrong With The G-8", Forbes (New York). 7 July 2008.
  19. "Meeting to Discuss Crisis Impact in Africa's Infrastructure Development", Afrol News. 2 March 2009.
  20. Шаблон:Cite news
  21. Ruttenberg, Jim. "Bush’s Policy Chit-Chat: Undiplomatic Prose", The New York Times. 18 July 2006.
  22. Шаблон:Cite news
  23. Шаблон:Cite news
  24. Prestige Media: Шаблон:Webarchive "official" G8 Summit magazine Шаблон:Webarchive
  25. Шаблон:Cite web