There was apprehension among the Group of Eight (G8) leaders as they converged on the luxurious Lough Erne Resort in Northern Ireland for the 39th G8 summit this week. The setting for the 2013 G8 summit in the heart of the lakelands of County Fermanagh projected a false sense of optimism, however. “Ten or 20 years ago, a G8 in Fermanagh would have been unimaginable. But today Northern Ireland is a very different place... a symbol of hope to the world,” British Prime Minister David Cameron assured his guests. Over the years, Northern Ireland has shed its reputation as one of the world's most dangerous trouble spots. It has come a long way. Referring to Northern Ireland's impressive capacity to shed a four-decade deadly conflict that claimed 3,700 lives, Cameron announced that leaders of the G8 nations should be inspired by the Ulster setting. Economic concerns are presumed to top any G8 summit agenda, but global politics invariably predominate. The real point about the story of the G8 summit this year was Syria. Libya, too, featured prominently. The diplomatic dance swung round and the partners as predicted changed again. Russian President Vladimir Putin proved to be the perfect dance partner, so to speak, of United States President Barack Obama at Lough Erne. They waltzed away over Syria. Security checkpoints and guards, including covert patrols of armed Gurkhas, secured the resort. The unspoken consensus among G8 leaders concerning Syria was to maintain the status quo, which means stasis and avoiding unpleasant surprises. Britain and France pretend otherwise, but the twin powers of yesteryear do not have much clout. The xenophobes in London and Paris even suspect that their respective countries are overrun by foreigners. It was all too pat, and appearances are often misleading. The Lough Erne Resort with its extravagant golf course is, alas, debt-ridden, just like the British economy. Worse, the host nation, like the G8, is something of an anachronism. The group is supposed to represent the world's most powerful nations. Yet, the G8 does not include China, the world's second-largest economy, nor Brazil, with the world's sixth-largest GDP, or India with a population of 1.2 billion and the world's ninth-biggest GDP. Amid much pomp and ceremony, though, the European Union and the United States proudly proclaimed that they were set to launch talks to create the world's largest free-trade pact that would leave Russia out in the cold. Taking on graft in their own exclusive circle, the G8 leaders pledged to reach a speedy agreement on trade and tax reform. The pact, Cameron stressed, would slash tariffs on exports and boost employment and growth on both sides of the Atlantic. “This will be a summit that will drive growth and prosperity all over the world,” Cameron said prior to the G8 summit. Wishful thinking or blatant cynicism? A host of anti-globalisation activists greeted the G8 leaders holding fake salt-shakers labelled “Land” and “Tax” in front of a giant cooking pot. They were obviously not in the least bit impressed. Among the activists were members of the British-based charity Oxfam. “We are here because we know that the G8 are talking about some of the measures that are going to tackle poverty and hunger. They're talking about tax dodging right now, and we are pushing them to make sure they really do deliver on a deal for poor countries. It's hanging in the balance right now, but they can work around the clock in the next two days and get it done,” said Emma Seery, a spokeswoman. Stark realities such as the widening gap between rich and poor both between nations and within countries compound the crisis and paint a grim global picture. Anti-globalisation activists urged the assembled G8 leaders to take action to increase tax transparency and stop land seizures which they argue fuel food hunger. Fast skyrocketing income differentials and social and economic inequalities threaten world peace, they argued. As far as Libya was concerned, the G8 leaders were content to reach a modus vivendi with post-Gaddafi Libya over security matters and economic interests. Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan was one of a handful of non-G8 leaders to be invited to the Lough Erne summit. His main purpose, he reported, was to turn Libya into a true ally of the West rather than a dupe and cat's paw. In a way that is reminiscent of the fashion that the fighting around ancient Troy in the Iliad was paralleled by the fracas between the gods on Mount Olympus, the struggle between Libya's warring militias for political turf was paralleled by the commotion in the corridors of power in Lough Erne's G8 summit. However, the truth is that the February Revolution in Libya that toppled the Gaddafi regime had no timetable and no blueprint. The Revolution has brought forward violence and rancour between the militias and regions with very damaging long-term effects. The eight G8 leaders were joined by European Commission and Council presidents Jose Manuel Barroso and Herman van Rompuy at the end of the first day of the summit. The leaders of Britain and Russia said on Sunday that they were hopeful that Syria's warring factions could hammer out their differences at the upcoming peace talks tentatively scheduled for next month in Geneva. It will not be easy to solve the Syrian political crisis and ease the economic malaise in Europe at the same time. Obviously, there is a long list of pressing problems to contend with. The world appears to be turning its back on the West. The perils of democracy are preoccupying several nations that have embraced the Western multi-party democratic system. One would imagine that the Western powers would welcome such a development. Instead, a more bumptious developing world is jangling many nerves in Western capitals, and no more so than in the countries of the so-called Arab Spring. The democratic process in the Arab Spring nations has fallen prey on occasion to excessive militant Islamism. The West is in a funk over the outcome of the Arab Spring revolutions — hence the reluctance to back the Syrian armed opposition forces openly. Cameron's Downing Street office declared that Putin, in conjunction with other G8 leaders, was still pressing for talks between representatives of the Syrian president and the disparate armed opposition groups that aim at driving him from power. Asked whether the proposed introduction of a “no-fly zone” over parts of Syria or moves by Western powers to funnel weapons to Syria's rebels had sabotaged the peace talks, Putin's answer was an unequivocal no. “I don't think that the idea of the conference is buried for good,” Putin insisted. “This is one of the most reasonable and acceptable ways of solving this problem. Only by joint efforts is it possible to definitively settle the problem and persuade the warring sides to sit down for talks,” he said.Last week, the White House announced that the Obama administration had finally agreed, after months of hesitation, to supply the Syrian armed opposition groups with upgraded military aid. Russia and other G8 nations, in particular the vociferously anti-Bashar Al-Assad Britain and France, have been at loggerheads over the prickly problem of supplying arms to the protagonists in the Syrian conflict, with Russia sending weapons to Al-Assad's military, while strongly objecting to any move on the part of Western nations to do the same to his adversaries. Al-Assad's increasingly strident attacks on his opponents with the assistance of Iran, Russia and Hizbullah, as well as the moral and logistical support of the Shia-dominated government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, has also complicated things. On this last point Russia will make itself heard in Lough Erne, and loudly so. Germany, too, with its iron lady Chancellor Angela Merkel, will emphasise that its economic well-being is inextricably intertwined with the fortunes of the euro. It is against this backdrop that the very notion of reopening the global agenda of helping the poor appears to be little short of preposterous. G8 proposals for combating poverty have been largely inspired not by altruism but by austere Western financial policymakers. The G8 powers have watered down commitments to the developing world since the global financial crisis intensified. The host nation, Britain, is the only G8 country on course to meet its targets to assist least-developed nations. Many wonder why Britain wants to tread into such a minefield. Since 2004, the British aid budget has risen by $5.13 billion. Only the US, which has five times the population of Britain, has seen a bigger increase in its contributions to the poorest countries, at $5.83 billion. On a per capita basis, Britain has therefore facilitated a far bigger rise in aid for the least-developed nations. Few announcements from the G8 have been awaited with such foreboding from the least-developed nations as those concerning aid. Indeed, over the past year Britain's aid budget has continued to increase while the US, Germany and France have adopted a deliberate policy of reducing assistance to the least-developed nations. In one sense, though, the G8 powers' decision to reduce aid to the poor looks less forbidding than the sound and fury of the disadvantaged and least-privileged nations suggests. In cash terms, Africa, for instance, is receiving more development assistance from the emerging markets of Asia than ever before. India has emerged as the largest investor in Africa, and China is the continent's greatest trading partner. On a lighter note, America's first lady stole the show in Northern Ireland from her husband, who happily conceded defeat. “I think it would be a good opportunity for me to introduce someone who accompanied me here today,” Michele Obama said to laughter from Belfast's Waterfront Hall. “I let him travel with me every now and then.” Don't count on this being the final word on the G8, though.
