WASHINGTON, 9 June 2004 — Much is at stake as President Bush hosts the leaders of the world’s top industrial nations this week at Sea Island, an exclusive resort off the Georgia coast during the 30th annual Group of 8 Economic Summit. The G-8 leaders include Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Canada.
The results of this summit are important politically for Bush, whose poll ratings have fallen and who faces Democratic criticism that he does not work well with other leaders.
The G-8 meeting’s official agenda includes items such as debt relief, trade promotion and fighting AIDS and global famine. But Bush has set the Middle East and the war on terrorism as its main focus.
Entitled the “Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative,” Bush wants a United Nations resolution to bring international help in achieving stability and economic investment in Iraq; promoting democracy and economic development in the Middle East; and improving coordination in the war on terrorism.
Key demands by the European Union appear to have been met in the latest draft of a joint G-8 plan to reform and democratize the Middle East. The text, drafted by the United States is set to be unveiled at the close of the summit. During the months of negotiations leading up to the summit, the EU voiced concerns that the original draft imposed reform from the outside and that a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict did not play a big enough role.
Word from Washington is that the G-8 initiative was “driven primarily by White House officials who are not experts on the Middle East,” according to yesterday’s Washington Post.
The text now focuses on assisting civil society as well as dealing with governments, negating the dependency the original policy would have depended solely on the will of regimes in the region. The current plan addresses issues of governance, democracy, rule of law, human rights, respect of minorities, rights of women, education and economic potential, according to diplomats.
Success of the plan means Bush and his European counterparts will have to put behind them animosity left over from the Iraq war and focus on reaching an agreement on such critical matters as the future of Iraq.
Some experts here doubt that Bush and his counterparts will accomplish much this week; they expect any agreement will strive for “a facade of unity” — while avoiding the tough issues such as real sovereignty in Iraq after June 30.
Many Europeans opposed the war in Iraq and argue that Americans still want to retain control over that country.
A draft of the proposed declaration began circulating months ago; it alienated some Arab leaders who let the administration know that any such document must call for greater efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
As a result, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Morocco turned down Bush’s invitation to attend this week’s gathering.
Incredibly, Qatar — a leader of democratic reform in the region — was deliberately snubbed by the Bush administration, which is still angry over television channel Al-Jazeera’s coverage during the Iraq war.
The administration is downplaying their absence. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice cited scheduling issues as the problem for Egypt and Morocco, and told reporters the absence of some key Arab leaders would not deter Bush’s initiative.
“You can expect the G-8 leaders this week to agree to take new actions to promote freedom, democracy and prosperity in the broader Middle East,” Rice said.
Rice said the president’s desire to promote these issues in the greater Middle East, not just Iraq, is based on his conviction that the United States was wrong for too long in believing that “stability could be bought at the expense of freedom and liberty.”
Instead, she added, “What we bought was extremism.”
At Bush’s invitation, the leaders of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen will be present to meet with the group, mostly to discuss his initiative, Rice said.
President Bush will also meet with interim Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawar this afternoon.
