CALGARY -(Dow Jones)- There will be no communique at the end of the summit meeting of the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations that wraps up Thursday, and the U.S. thinks that is the way it should be, according to Deputy National Security Adviser for Economic Affairs Gary Edson.
Edson said Tuesday the decision not to issue the traditional communique was made despite some opposition by other countries in the G-8.
"The good news is that we've prevailed. There will not be a communique, per se, as you've seen in past years. We've argued, the U.S. has argued that it's of limited utility," Edson said.
Instead, the G-8 summit participants - which include the leaders from the U.S. , Russia , Japan , Canada , the U.K., Germany , France and Italy - will issue " some other relevant documents."
The closest thing to a communique will be a summary of the summit's agenda which will be issued by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
Among the position papers the G-8 will issue is a set of principles outlining in specific detail what each country should do to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, a document on steps taken so far to combat terrorism and a plan to enhance the security of international transportation systems, Edson said.
Edson noted that the global trading system depends on the free flow of millions of shipping containers. However, these containers also pose a risk in that terrorists might use them to transport weapons of mass destruction into a country.
"There are 48 million containers that are exported or imported annually. There are 28,000 ships trading daily around the world. It's a huge challenge," Edson said.
Edson said the U.S. wants the G-8 to agree to specific steps that can be taken to verify what is carried in the shipping containers in order to reduce the threat they pose.
"We think that that's a critically important initiative that the United States has been driving," Edson said.
CALGARY -(Dow Jones)- Neither U.S. President George W. Bush nor Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi would take questions at a brief photo opportunity before their bilateral meeting Tuesday evening.
The two leaders were sitting in their chairs when journalists were hustled into the room and shook hands for about a minute for the photographers.
Bush said he would take questions before his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien later in the evening.
Bush is holding a series of bilateral meetings before and during the G-8 summit.
CALGARY -(Dow Jones)- U.S. President George W. Bush Tuesday said the U.S. dollar will seek its own appropriate level in the foreign exchange markets based on market forces.
"As you know, my position is that the dollar will seek its own level based upon market forces and based upon whether or not our country can rein in spending, can recover, can revitalize our manufacturing base. So the dollar will seek its appropriate level based on market forces," Bush said.
He made the comments before a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. For his part, Chretien added, "I will say the same thing about the Canadian dollar."
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.