Main focus of Friday, July 10, 2009

G8 is not enough

The leading industrial nations attending the G8 summit in L'Aquila have harshly criticised Iran for its nuclear programme and the quashing of the protests against the results of the presidential elections. Meanwhile the European press writes that in future it will be important to ensure greater involvement of the most important emerging nations.

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung discusses the attitude of the G8 summit participants to Iran: "That the Kremlin, until now almost Iran's protector, now complains not only in diplomatic circles about Iran's obstinacy and refrains from watering down a sharply critical summit declaration is a clear signal to Tehran. Nevertheless Obama is running a high risk. ... Tehran has long been using resistance to the West over nuclear issues to close the ranks domestically. Obama may in addition be happy about having Medvedev's support, but without China there will be no decisive new sanctions. ... If the course of reconciliation misses its target, Obama will have to opt for a strict isolation policy at the very least. Iran will then unleash its destabilising powers not only in Lebanon, but in Iraq and the Palestinian Territories as well. If the world fails to stand up to Iran as one, Obama's entire Middle East policy runs the risk of failure." (10/07/2009)

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Helsingin Sanomat - Finland

"Hardly anyone expected miracles from the G8 summit of the world's richest countries in the Italian city of L'Aquila, but the results are even poorer than expected," writes the daily Helsingin Sanomat. "That's a pity, because the global economic crisis demands concrete solutions if we're to finally start moving ahead. The G8 group of rich industrial nations is starting to become an outdated model because it lacks the group of emerging economies like China, India and Brazil as members. Their representatives were there but the Chinese leader Hu Jintao left the meeting early owing to the unrest in his country. … The industrial states failed in their attempt to involve the growing economies of India and China in the emissions agreements. The latter want guarantees that the rich will make genuine efforts. It's not just up to the rich industrial nations to combat climate change. Everyone must be involved." (10/07/2009)

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La Repubblica - Italy

The daily La Repubblica assesses the G8 summit with an eye to the role of the five emerging nations participating, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. "The world view of the emerging countries is far removed from our own. They have other priorities, and phenomenal ... economic and political clout. ... The coalition of outsiders at the G8 summit are no longer on 'the periphery'. On the contrary, China and India potentially represent the locomotive of global economic growth. They are the only giants that have managed to disengage themselves from the cycle of recession. But enlarging the representative body of the world's leading politicians with these new members runs the risk of crippling the summit, so large is the gap in interests. ... The demise of the old world order is a fact. But what is emerging as the post-G8 world order is a far more complex, if not necessarily more stable world." (10/07/2009)

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De Standaard - Belgium

The G8 summit is a disappointment, writes Matthias Matthijs, professor of politics and economics at Washington's John Hopkins University, in the daily De Standaard: "Even if we acknowledge that the G8 has diminished in importance it's worrying to watch the G8 leaders push the true cause of the financial crisis aside for the sake of 'quick fixes'. They can't do much, but they can do more than they are doing now. … The problem is that the money is flowing from poor to rich and not the other way round. The Chinese are subsidising the Americans' almost inexorable need to consume. … Given these [growing global macro-economic imbalances] the G8 - expanded to the G10 by adding China and India - can play an important role by constructing a system that automatically corrects imbalances when they get out of control - just as the EU Commission does with budgetary deficits in Europe." (10/07/2009)

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Der Standard - Austria

In the opinion of the left-liberal daily Der Standard the G8 summit has achieved some minimal progress: "It definitely wasn't the recognition-craving host of the summit Silvio Berlusconi but Barack Obama who got things moving. He injected a lot of political and diplomatic capital which the US had lacked for a long time into the process, facilitated compromises and brought to Italy some of the change he preached during his lengthy US election campaign. It will also require the US president's full commitment in the future to ensure that the upcoming summit meeting is a success. For even minimal progress there would be a great achievement." (10/07/2009)

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