George W. Bush is the rookie and Jean Chretien is the elder statesman as both leaders get set to take to the world stage at the G8 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.
The Kananaskis summit will be a unique meeting for variety of reasons, according to University of Alberta Political Science professor Tom Keating.“It’s the first post September 11th summit, it’s being held at one of the most isolated locations and there is new American president, which will garner a lot of attention,’ said Keating.
On June 26th and 27th the leaders of the G8 countries will be shaping future economic and political policy at their annual summit being held in the rocky mountain resort.
The road to Kananskis started in France in 1975 with the formation of the G5.
Keating pointed to severe economic problems in France and fallout from the OPEC oil crisis in the early 70’s as the genesis of the G5. “France wanted cooperation between countries to solve mutual economic problems,’ he said.
So France arranged a summit in 1975 with the United States, Germany, Britain and Japan. The G7 was formed when the G5 leaders agreed to meet again in 1976 and invited Canada and Italy to join the group.
“Canada joined because the U.S. wanted Canada in, and Canada wanted in too. Italy was added to the mix by the other Europeans countries to counter the strength of the U.S.,” said Keating.
The G5 and then the G7 was originally formed to deal exclusively with economic issues. But, according to Keating, that changed to include political issues in the early nineties when Russia was invited to attend the summit meetings.
Keating said the G7 countries felt it was necessary to add Russia because of its high profile on the world stage. “Russia was an important political player in the world, although not a top economy,” added Keating.
Russia became a full partner at the 1997 summit in Denver.
The recent addition of the political component to the summits has taken the form of a theme picked by the host country.
Canada has chosen African economic development.
“Canada will push the other G8 countries to develop a commitment to African economic development through measures such as increase in foreign aid and the cancellation of debts,” Keating said.
Keating added that it’s one thing to get the G8 leaders to agree on policies at the summit but it’s quite another to put those policies in place in their home countries. “Leaders agree at the summit to do A, B, and C and then go home and do D, E, and F. If you read their past summit declarations they’ve already solved all the world’s problems.”
Keating said it’s hard to judge the success of the annual global get togethers but he stresses that they are important, “it’s the board of directors meeting for the global economy.”
As to whether the summits are good or bad, he stressed that depends on your point of view. One point of view says expanding the global economy is good for everybody and the G8 meetings are good for the global economy.
The other point of view says the expansion of the global economy is not equal and the poorer nations get left behind and issues important to them such as poverty, human rights and the environment are ignored.
In any case, for two days at the end of June Kananaskis, will be the hub of the global economy.
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