The G-8 summit which opens today in the German resort of Heiligendamm has been preceded by a great deal of international media speculation. Will it mark a return to a Cold War between East and West? Will the US’ anti-missile defense plans and Russia’s retaliatory threat to target European cities derail any chance of agreements? Can German Chancellor Angela Merkel secure a deal on climate change? In this part of the world, however, the stark truth is that the summit is a total irrelevance.
There are no Arab voices there, no Muslim voices. There will be nothing about the rise of Islamophobia in the West and Russia or the dangerous divide between Muslims and non-Muslims worldwide which at least two of the summiteers (the UK’s Tony Blair and new French President Nicolas Sarkozy) agree must be dealt with. There will be nothing about Iraq, nothing about Guantanamo and probably nothing about Lebanon. Because the meeting coincides with the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War, those at the summit may feel constrained to mouth platitudes about the need for Middle East peace — but their words too will be of no interest because they will amount to nothing more than meaningless empty words. There will be no commitment to joint action to end the four decades of Israeli occupation and certainly no threat — or even a mention — of pressure on Israel to comply with UN resolutions. Little wonder then that Arabs and Muslims see the summit not merely as a waste of time but worse, as an arrogant ignoring of issues that for them (and many others as well) are the most important of all.
That does not mean that Arabs and Muslims are not concerned about global warming or worried about the possibility of a new Cold War. Of course they are. They welcome the fact that it is no longer an exclusive G-8 get-together. Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa also are there. The old phrase about the rest of the world catching a cold if the US sneezes is long out of date. The worry now is that China may sneeze. All the same, for the time being, their vital issues are outside G-8 concern.
As for fears about a new Cold War, no one in this part of the world can forget how the first one was manipulated and exploited as a proxy battleground. A new one would make the Middle East infinitely more dangerous than it presently is. Realistically though, the G-8 summit is not going to avert a new arms race if that is what Putin and Bush genuinely want but there is no evidence that either of them do. Putin’s tough remarks were clearly made with the summit in mind — a summit that is a media circus designed to convince people back home that their leaders are meaningfully engaged in making the world a better place. It is all talk and no action — rather like those endless meetings, seminars and forums so popular here in the Gulf and which rightly attract regular derision. When the G-8 leaders finally do something for peace in the Middle East — still the most dangerous place on earth — people here will support and enthusiastically applaud them. Until then, there can be nothing but frustration and scorn.
