- 32nd G8 summit
Infobox G8
summit_name = 32nd G8 summit
year = 2006
caption = 32nd G8 Summit official logo
country = Russia
dates =July 15 –July 17 ,The 32nd summit of theG8 group of industrialised nations took place fromJuly 15 toJuly 17 ,2006 outsideSaint Petersburg ,Russia . The venue was theConstantine Palace , which is located inStrelna on theGulf of Finland . [cite web|url=http://en.g8russia.ru/land/russia/shortinfo/|title=A Brief Overview|publisher=G8Russia|year=2006 |accessdate=2006-07-19] [cite web|url=http://en.g8russia.ru/land/strelna/history/|title=PALACE OF CONGRESSES|publisher=G8Russia|year=2006 |accessdate=2006-07-19] This was the first time Russia served as host nation for a G8 summit.. TheG8 is an unofficial forum which brings together the heads of the richest industrialized countries:France ,Germany ,Italy ,Japan , theUnited Kingdom , theUnited States ,Canada (since 1976),Russia (since 1998),Saunders, Doug. [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080704.wG8-analysis05/BNStory/International/columnists "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders,"] "Globe and Mail" (Toronto). July 5, 2008.] thePresident of the European Commission (since 1981). [Reuters: [http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKB26280520080703?sp=true "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?"] , July 3, 2008.]The G8 summits during the twenty-first century have also involved widespread parallel debates and protests by citizens.
Composition of summit leaders
The core membership of the
G8 has remained constant since Russia joined the talks at the 1997 summit in Denver.Permanent
The G8 summit was the first for Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper , German ChancellorAngela Merkel , and Italian Prime MinisterRomano Prodi ; and it was the last G8 summit for French PresidentJacques Chirac .*
Canada Stephen Harper , Prime Minister
*France Jacques Chirac , President
*Germany Angela Merkel , Chancellor
*Italy Romano Prodi , Prime Minister
*Japan Junichiro Koizumi , Prime Minister
*Russia Vladimir Putin , President
*United Kingdom Tony Blair , Prime Minister
*United States George W. Bush , PresidentInvited (partial participation)
Other non-G8 leaders were invited to attend and participate in the summit talks.
National leaders
*
Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , President
*India Manmohan Singh , Prime Minister
*Mexico Vicente Fox , President
*People's Republic of China Hu Jintao , President
*South Africa Thabo Mbeki , PresidentHeads of international organizations
Leaders of the major international organizations were invited to attend the summit.
*
*European Union José Manuel Barroso , Commission, andMatti Vanhanen , Council [ [http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2006stpetersburg/delegations.html Delegation information] ]
*flagicon|CISCommonwealth of Independent States Nursultan Nazarbayev , Executive Secretary
* , Director General
*International Energy Agency Claude Mandil , Executive Director
*United Nations Kofi Annan , Secretary-General
* , Director General
* , President
* , Director-General
* , Director-GeneralPriorities
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. cite web|url=http://en.g8russia.ru/agenda/|title=Address by Russian President Vladimir Putin to visitors to the official site of Russia’s G8 Presidency in 2006|publisher=G8Russia|year=2006 |accessdate=2006-07-19]The G8 is primarily an economic forum between the global economic powerhouses; and the focus of this G8 Summit was discussion of economic issues. Some of the pressing items on the agenda:
* Open trade between Russia and the United States, including discussion of Russian entry into theWorld Trade Organization
* Multi-billion dollar aircraft manufacturing contracts, in light of strategy shifts atAirbus andBoeing and worsening airline business performance
* Free energy markets, especially regarding Russia and former Soviet republics, as well aspetroleum from the Middle East
**Nigeria ,Venezuela , and thePersian 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 NorthAtlantic Ocean /Baltic Sea
** Alternative energy forms, especially relaxing nuclear power regulations; and development ofhydrogen 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 diseasesIsrael-Lebanon crisis
The agenda set up by Russian President
Vladimir Putin was largely overshadowed by the continuing violence inIsrael andLebanon . On16 July , the leaders of the G8 nations agreed on a statement [cite web|url=http://en.g8russia.ru/docs/21.html|title=Middle East |publisher=G8Russia|date=2006-07-16 |accessdate=2006-07-13] calling for an end to the fighting and the release of the Israeli soldiers.cite news|title=Merkel: G-8 agrees on Mideast statement|date=2006-07-16 |publisher=Yahoo! |work=Associated Press |url= http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060716/ap_on_re_as/g8_summit|accessdate=2006-07-19] 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 hundredhuman 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".cite news |title=Dozens preemptively arrested in leadup to St Petersburg G8 Summit | date=2006-07-12 | publisher=Wikinews
url= http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Dozens_preemptively_arrested_in_leadup_to_St_Petersburg_G8_Summit
accessdate=2006-07-19]Cherie Blair , wife of the British Prime Minister and a human rightslawyer , 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 byDowning Street , and has reportedly furthered a rift between Britain and Russia. [cite news|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/18/wgeight18.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/07/18/ixnews.html|title=Cherie Blair infuriates Russia with offer of help to activists|author=Blomfield, Adrian and Wilson, Graeme|date=2006-07-18 |accessdate=2006-07-19|publisher=The Daily Telegraph ]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. [Lee, Don. [http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-summit6-2008jul06,0,2282497.story "On eve of summit, G-8's relevance is unclear,"] "Los Angeles Times." July 6, 2008.] 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."Feldman, Adam. [http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/07/05/problems-unity-progress-oped-cx_af_summit08_0707feldman.html "What's Wrong With The G-8,"] "Forbes" (New York). July 7, 2008.]
Recorded conversations
During the summit, a conversation between President
George W. Bush and Prime MinisterTony Blair was inadvertently recorded by a U.S. TV crew preparing for a live broadcast. [cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5188258.stm|title=Transcript: Bush and Blair's unguarded chat|publisher=BBC News Online |date=2006-07-18 |accessdate=2006-07-19]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. The paper singled out Bush's apparent snub of an offer by Blair to mediate in the2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict , in favour of sendingCondoleezza Rice . [cite news|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article1183388.ece|title='Yo, Blair!': Overheard at the G8|date=2006-07-18 |accessdate=2006-07-19|publisher=The Independent ] While Britons were upset with the perception that Blair was subordinate to Bush, in the US the fact that Bush used an expletive (claiming the2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict would not have escalated ifSyria would have pressured theHezbollah to "stop doing this shit") was of greater concern. [cite news |title= Bush frustration sparks expletive | date=2006-07-17 | publisher=CNN
url= http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/07/17/russia.g8.bushremark.ap/index.html
accessdate=2006-07-20]References
See also
*
G6 andG7 External links
*
G8 Research Group : [http://www.g8.utoronto.ca G8 Information Centre] ,University of Toronto
* Official G8 website: [http://en.g8russia.ru/ St. Petersburg G8]Press and media
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5182442.stm BBC News: Russian WTO bid falters at summit]
* [http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=5714467&subject=economic&action=article Business Finance News: G8 SUMMIT At-a-glance guide to the main points]
* [http://www.janes.com/security/law_enforcement/news/pr/pr060713_1_n.shtml Russian roulette] Article previewing likely policing methods at the summit, 13 July 2006
* [http://presse.gipfelsoli.org/blogs/index.php?blog=6 G8 2006 Info- and Pressgroup]
*G8 research group [http://g8live.ca "G8 Live" Live news and blogs from St. Petersburg summit by University of Toronto student members of the G8 Research Group]
* Medish, Mark. [http://www.theglobalist.com/storyid.aspx?StoryId=5151 "Russia — Odd Man Out in the G-8"] , "The Globalist ",24 February 2006
* Oxford Energy Comment. [http://www.oxfordenergy.org/pdfs/comment_0806-1.pdf "The G8 and Russia: Security of Supply vs. Security of Demand?"] , Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, August 2006Activism
* [http://int.ru.indymedia.org/ Russia Indymedia Coverage] English language reporting from the protests against the summit
* [http://rtc.revolt.org/node/337 Call to Action against G8 + 5 Energy Minister's Meeting on Climate Change, Oct 3-4, 2006 in Mexico City]
* [http://g8.bravehost.com/ "G8 St.Petersburg, Russia"]
* [http://g8-2006.plentyfact.net/index.php/Main_Page "G8 Summit 2006, St.Petersburg, Russia"] (plentyfact wiki)
* [http://g8-2006.plentyfact.net Activist mobilisation against the summit]
* [http://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/lunevalley-g8-inform/2005-July/000195.html Activists' preparations]
* [http://rtc.revolt.org/node/316 2006 G8 Summit - Chronicle of Global Resistance]
* [http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/g82006/ 2006 G8 Summit - Protest Reports & Photos]
* [http://www.spb8.net/en Network Against G8 Saint-Petersburg]
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