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India's diplomatic gains at St. Petersburg G8 summit

Panna Lal Chowdhury - 8/27/2006

At the Group of eight (G8) summit of July 2006 India was a special invitee to the meeting along with China, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Congo. The G8 comprises the world's top industrialized nations like the US, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, Italy, Germany and Canada. Russia has now taken on the presidency of G8 for the first time after its joining the group.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and top representatives of several global organizations like the World Bank and the International Atomic Energy Agency were also present at the meeting.

Leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized countries discussed various international events and economic issues for three days and concluded their annual summit on 17 July.

Among other issues the summit has also adopted an energy security plan. The Energy security issue was a priority agenda of the G8 summit this year. In its statement at close of summit , the leaders from the world's wealthiest nations said 'open, transparent, efficient and competitive' markets are the cornerstone for global energy security'.

The G8 leaders adopted the St. Petersburg Plan of Action to enhance global energy security, undertaking to 'reduce barriers to energy investment and trade, making it possible for companies from energy producing and consuming countries to invest in and acquire upstream and downstream assets internationally'.

With all the G-8 members also being the participating members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the St. Petersburg platform was also used by these member countries to push forward their individual deal with India as the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal was going to be ratified by the US Senate. The agenda was already set by US President George Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin who said that they would help India in the field of civilian nuclear cooperation "to satisfy her (India’s) energy requirement".

India's strong record in nuclear non-proliferation is also seen by the leaders to call for India's more direct involvement in "strengthening global non-proliferation regime".

India too was looking for the G8 platform to further its demand for a civilian nuclear fuel supply as among the invited members in the summit --- China, Brazil and South Africa too are the members of the NSG.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed that G8 group of industrialized countries should be expanded to include emerging economic players like India and China. After the British prime minister, it was President Vladimir Putin to make a strong plea to expand the G8 grouping of industrialized countries to include India and China. 'It is difficult to imagine effectively resolving economic, financial and energy problems without economies that are developing as quickly of those of China and India,' Putin said in response to a question over possible entry of India in G8.

The leaders also came out with a joint statement against terrorism in the wake of the July 11 serial blasts in Mumbai. The happenings of the events like the 7/11 Mumbai serial blasts added to India's concern and it was one of its priority for the summit. The involvement of Pakistan based terror groups seems more and more clear. Prime Minister Singh pleaded for a strong statement from the world leaders on terrorism, similar to how they had reacted on London's 7/7 bombings at last year's G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland.

Speaking last year at the G8 summit in Scotland, Singh condemned the London bombings and said, "These incidents show that global terrorism does not recognize international boundaries and we all need to work together to counter it", and added "Those responsible have no respect for human life. We are united in our resolve to confront and defeat this terrorism that is not an attack on one nation, but on all nations and on civilized people everywhere.

A strong plea by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G8 Summit made the leaders of industrialized nations and the outreach partners to condemn the 'barbaric' Mumbai blasts and pledge their support to New Delhi in fighting terrorism.

The pledge came in the form of a statement by the G8 members and its outreach partners like China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa in which they also said they would join hands with New Delhi to bring to justice to the 'perpetrators, organizers and sponsors' behind the terror attacks.

In a major diplomatic victory for India, the statement also recognizes cross-border linkages of terrorism and the links between the 7/11 Mumbai blasts and terrorism in other parts of the world.

The special tone and the content of the statement was the result of a convincing diplomacy on cross-border terrorism by the Indian prime minister during his bilateral meeting with US President George W. Bush just before the summit meeting.

'We are outraged by the barbaric terrorist acts, carried out on 11 July 2006 in Mumbai and other parts of India,' said the statement. 'We stand in solidarity with the government and the people of India and express our deepest condolences to the victims and their families,' the statement added.

On the sidelines of the summit, Manmohan Singh met Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, among other world leaders.

India’s diplomatic gain at the summit comes first of all, from its position as a special invitee there. The diplomatic gain enhanced further as:

The summit strongly condemned the organizers and sponsors of Mumbai blasts and conveyed its support to New Delhi in fighting terrorism.
Major NSG members expressed support for Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.
There was proposal for expansion of G8 through inclusion of India and China.
All these developments simply indicate that in respect of Indian subcontinent there is a major change in the global mindset which prevailed during the past years. During the cold war India and Pakistan was considered as neighbors with almost similar fundamentals, deserving equal treatment from the big powers. Even after the days of cold war this mindset continued for a few years. But now the reality of developments in various fields has shown that these two countries are to be considered as per their own performance which is quite different from each other. India is the largest democracy in the world, while Pakistan is ruled by military generals for many many years and yet to develop itself as a democratic country. Non-proliferation records of India are now appreciated by all the major world powers. While Pakistan’s performance in this respect is frustrating, when one look at the activities of the father of Pakistan’s nuclear regime AQ Khan. There are roots of terrorism in Pakistan. However, Pakistan government is taking good initiative now to introduce democracy there and to curb terrorism. Pakistan is an Islamic state while India is a secular democratic state.

In the economic field India along with China is growing up as an emerging economic player. For the economic performance India will be compared more with China. Major world powers feel that now India has a greater role to play in the world affairs. US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian affairs, Richard Boucher visiting India now (August 5), describe India as a rising world power.

The aforesaid change in the global mindset is the outcome of the democratic aspirations of the people around the world. As such it is a positive development and it will strengthen the forces of peace and progress around the globe. During the cold war the champions of capitalism and the champions of communism supported military rulers and dictators for their own narrow interest. Those days are gone and the world is far more democratic now compared to the dark days of cold war. However, terrorism has now appeared as a new challenge for the mankind.

The G8 leaders also discussed the world economy, concluding that global economic growth 'remains strong and has become more broadly based'.

Although economic issues are supposed to dominate the summit, these were overshadowed by the present crisis in the Middle East.

The summit issued an appropriate response to the latest Middle East crisis and finally called for an end to the violence in the region.

The leaders asked both Hezbollah and Israel to show restraint and end the violence in the Middle East. They also urged Israel to end military operations and withdraw forces from Gaza.

In a statement from the summit, the G8 leaders asked Hezbollah to free abducted Israeli soldiers and immediately halt attacks on Israel.

The summit issued joint declarations that called for bolstering energy security, fighting infectious diseases and improving education.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, host of his country's first G-8 summit, called the declaration ''a compromise formulation that in my mind is quite balanced”.