In the works: visit by Singh to US,return by Obama

While these are all plans at the moment,the fact that these are suddenly picking 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 two leaders will have more than one occasion to speak to each other in the informal setting that the G-8 provides. This apart,officials are working hard to set up a separate bilateral meeting either on July 9 or 10. Until now,some of the key meetings already set up are those with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday,German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday and Japanese PM Taro Aso on Friday.

The G8 itself will see an important change this time with work getting underway on moving to the next phase of expanding the G8. The final declaration,for the first time,is expected to be a joint G8 and G5 document. The G-5 or the Outreach Five countries are India,China,Brazil,South Africa and Mexico. This was one the 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 authorize 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,Netherlands and some other African countries. The agenda too includes some contentious issues,which are bound to surface over the next three days.

The three key themes are:

•Global Economic Crisis: On 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 to 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 organizations being invited.

While it is clear that the bilateral meetings will draw maximum attention,this G8 Summit will witness the difficult interplay among over 25 countries on critical global issues. And it would call for deft diplomacy given the way interests are arraigned differently on each of these issues.

‘UNSC has a legitimacy problem’

Before he left on Tuesday,Singh said:

•Slowdown in advanced economies has affected our exports,strengthened protectionist sentiments and impacted credit and capital flows…This has not been a crisis of our making,but we have had to bear its consequences.

•UN Security Council’s structure poses serious problems of legitimacy. The system which gives a veto to nations that emerged victorious after World War II is clearly anachronistic.