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Analysis: G8 Summit Concludes

Council on Foreign Relations

Updated July 17, 2006
Prepared by: CFR.org Staff

An especially crowded agenda at this year’s Group of Eight (G8) summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, as well as distractions in the Middle East, left some wondering what resolutions of substance emerged from the highly orchestrated event. CFR Senior Fellow Steve Sestanovich dismisses the G8 as “an annual fantasy camp of candlelit, head-table diplomacy.” A recent poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, meanwhile, finds little public confidence in G8 leaders’ handling of international affairs.

The final statement of the summit left many questions unanswered, particularly those on securing energy supplies for Europe. But the summit did provide an important opportunity for the U.S. and Russian presidents, in particular, to seek common ground on an extraordinary number of escalating problems. They included the Iran nuclear crisis, North Korean missile tests, and growing conflict in the Middle East. Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer, noting recent strains in relations between Moscow and Washington, says “any meaningful reaffirmation of shared interests could mend a few fences.” For John Edwards and Jack Kemp, cochairs of the CFR task force on U.S. policy toward Russia, the burden is on host Russia to produce concrete results, such as “joining the United States and other democratic states in warning Iran about the negative consequences” of its nuclear program.

The issue most pertinent to Russian President Vladimir Putin—energy security—may be left unresolved. Another important issue is trade. Some experts think the G8 could breathe life into the stalled Doha trade talks, explained in this Backgrounder. In one glimmer of progress, the Russians reached a deal with the United States to join the World Trade Organization ahead of the summit. Still, Philip Kazin of the Baltic Research Center tells CFR.org in this podcast that he does not expect any major trade breakthroughs in St. Petersburg.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.