Deauville, Paris – The Group of Eight Summit is set to provide more support for Egypt and Tunisia, in their endeavors to build democracies and market-oriented economies.The summit scheduled for Thursday and Friday in the French city of Deauville, is to release a declaration of support of Arab Spring, the official Middle East News Agency reported on Wednesday. World leaders are expected to put aside squabbling over deficits and austerity that has marked recent G-8 gatherings and seek to marshall their combined economic might behind the grass-roots democracy movements that have swept North Africa and the Middle East since their last meeting a year ago, according to AP. These and other concerns raised by the Mideast upheaval will be a key focus of leaders from the US, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Russia when they gather. The G-8 leaders are expected to unveil a package of political and financial economic assistance for Egypt and Tunisia, which toppled their decades-old despotic regimes earlier this year. The revolutions cleared the way for political reform, but left their economies battered and their new governments fragile. Egypt and Tunisia suffered severe economic downturns this year largely due to sharp drops in tourism and foreign investment, and Tunisia is struggling to cope with thousands of refugees from neighbouring Libya. The economic turmoil is challenging the caretaker governments as they prepare for elections to install new leadership. Egypt and Tunisia are scheduled to attend a special session of the G-8 summit focused on their needs.
