FPA at the G8/G20 Summits – Part 2: The G8 Ends and the G20 Begins!

This blog has been posted in FPA’s European Union Blog and Latin America Blog.

Yesterday we discussed the opening of the G8 Summit in Huntsville, Ontario and some initial policy announcements and opening talks between the G8 leaders and invited diplomatic guests. Friday and Saturday morning saw the completion of the G8 talks and the beginning of the G20. The G8 produced an initiative for women’s and children’s health, but also laid the groundwork for the G20 debate on financial regulation between the EU and US. In addition, Friday produced an announcement by David Cameron of Britain’s intention to leave Afghanistan within the next five years and condemnation of North Korea’s and Iran’s nuclear programs. The G8 also invited leaders from Africa and the Americas and other non-G8 western countries to join in coordinating on maternal health and made a significant attempt to address issues involving terrorism, organised crime and drug trafficking with their African counterparts and those from the Americas.

Saturday June 26^th was the opening of discussions of the G20 and started off with some proposals that sought to define the character of the G20 apart from the members and interests of the G8. The G8, dominated by the EU and US, came to Toronto to form a combined strategy to avoid another debt crisis despite disagreement on the best method to do so and mediation by Canadian officials. The added members in the G20 will focus more on poverty reduction and opening more balanced trade between those G8 countries and the rest of the G20. An interesting development from the G20 today came through strong Canadian support to cancel Haiti’s debt towards international financial institutions by paying part of their debt through Canadian funds. There was also a great deal of encouragement for other G20 members to contribute to eliminating all of Haiti’s debt so it can grow without being disadvantaged with debt payments and poor credit. An initiative helping to support Small and Medium Sized Business was also announced today as the Small and Medium Sized Business Finance Challenge, focusing on bringing larger public and private companies to establish investment towards SME’s in low income countries.

As far as local news goes, 99% seems to be on the violent, or relatively violent protests for often quiet Toronto with a good deal of public condemnation of self named anarchist groups as four police cruisers burn on the streets, 150 people are arrested and the G20 delegates continue to discuss their issues behind a large security wall in silence. Since the G20 meetings started only today, most of the information inside Canada seems to focus on security issues in Toronto, while foreign media focuses on statements after the G8 had ended as everyone awaits further announcements from G20 leaders. What most are eagerly awaiting for is discussions on the new laws past in the US this week on how Wall Street must do business and announcements by EU officials on how they will address issues with the Euro. The debate on financial reform, and the US’ and EU’s differences is seen as the core of the G20 talks, as it will change the market and future of finance and the financial industry. With countries such as China, Brazil and India in the mix, the discussion will have to be dynamic enough to fulfill the ambitions of the mega-economies while allowing the G8 core nations to regenerate themselves as healthy and politically dominant economies. While the G8 did open discussion of the differences between Obama’s bailout strategy, where the US will spend their way out of debt for the time being, and the EU’s strategy of reducing government size and expenditures as the best method to avoid debt crisis 2.0; the G20 and the voices of the new international system will refine European and US debt to their benefit as well. An announcement post G20 will be discussed as the third part of the blog posts on FPA at the G8 and G20.

I encourage readers to view the two below video discussions on the G20 be Steve Paikin, local Canadian journalist for TV Ontario in his policy show, The Agenda with Steve Paikin.

The Agenda – June 22 2010: Brazil, India and China: Emerging G20 Powers

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The Agenda – June 23 2010: G20: Whining or Winning

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