G8 begins today,India working hard on sidelines

While these are all plans and proposals at the moment,the fact that they are suddenly picking up momentum is being seen as an encouraging sign given the drift that had set in as Obama assumed power and India went to polls earlier this year. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be in India on July 20-21 to take forward the conversation that Obama and Singh will have in Italy.

The G8 itself will see an important change this time with work getting underway on moving to the next phase of expanding the forum. The final declaration,for the first time,is expected to be a joint G8 and G5 document. The G5 or the Outreach Five countries are India,China,Brazil,South Africa and Mexico. This was one point the PM had made no bones about when he attended the Heiligendamm G8 Summit in 2007 where he had objected to the declaration being drafted without discussions with the G5 countries.

That summit also marked the first steps towards expanding G8 with the launching of the Heiligendamm Dialogue Process (HDP) on four themes with the G5 — cross-border investment,promoting and protecting innovation,mainly IPRs,energy security and development,particularly in Africa. The G8 and G5 have reached a broad understanding of extending this process by another two years.

However,work will begin on the next phase of this process at L’Aquila and would be called the Heiligendamm-L’Aquila Process (HAP). Italy has already prepared a concept paper on this and this summit will authorise officials to draw up a”substantive report” for the leaders to consider at the next summit in Muskoka,Canada. A final report will be given at the 2011 summit being hosted by France.

Even as the G8 and G5 move forward on a roadmap to bring them closer,the L’Aquila Summit will witness extraordinary participation with at least a dozen more countries invited for different discussions. These include Australia,Indonesia,Egypt,Denmark,Turkey,the Netherlands and some other African countries.

The three key themes are: Global economic crisis: On the first day,July 8,the G8 and G5 will hold separate discussions with the G5 expected to draw up a political declaration by the evening. The next morning,the G8 and G5 along with Egypt will have a detailed meeting on the global economy. China is keen to have a debate on the future of the dollar as the global reserve currency. India has said it is open to discussing all ideas while a strong response is expected from the G8.

Climate change: On the second day,July 9,a major economies meeting is planned for the afternoon. It is learnt that some important technology partnership missions will be agreed at this meeting. G8 countries with other allies are bound to push for commitments on emission cuts from India and China in the run-up to the Copenhagen meet. On this,New Delhi and Beijing had joined hands recently to propose an amendment to the Kyoto Protocol to push developed countries to come up with emission reduction targets for the second commitment period commencing 2013.

Food security: The third day of the summit will focus on this issue with countries from Africa along with representatives of relevant international organisations also being invited.

While it’s clear that the bilateral meets will draw maximum attention,this G8 Summit will witness the difficult interplay among over 25 countries on critical global issues. It will call for deft diplomacy given the way interests are arraigned differently.