Oh, That G-8

Editorial
Published: July 7, 2009

Expectations are low as this year’s Group of 8 summit meetings open Wednesday in the earthquake-damaged Italian city of L’Aquila. That is not for any lack of urgent problems, like a faltering global economy and Iran’s unchecked nuclear appetites. A successful summit also could give a much-needed push to international negotiations to address global warming and revive earlier promises to help the world’s poorest nations.
But inexcusably lax planning by the host government, Italy, and the political weakness of many of the leaders attending, leave little room for optimism. If this session is going to justify the time and effort, President Obama will have to lead the way. It is time for him to turn the diplomatic credit he has been earning over the past six months into diplomatic capital.
He must renew the push on Germany to invest more in economic stimulus. At the last major summit, the April Group of 20 meetings in London, Mr. Obama decided, for the sake of international unity, not to press hard. Three months later, the world economy is still weakening and only a concerted effort from both sides of the Atlantic can bring early recovery.
Mr. Obama also must press his fellow leaders to restrain dangerous protectionist impulses. To do that, he must pledge to restrain those impulses in Washington, starting with his own party.
He will need to begin leveraging his more nuanced approach toward Iran to build the kind of unity against nuclear adventurism that predictably eluded George W. Bush. Mr. Obama’s offer to engage with Tehran is welcome but still only half a policy. It needs to be reinforced with firm commitments by the other G-8 economies, Russia included, to apply tough and meaningful sanctions if Iran refuses to constrain its nuclear appetites.
If there is one issue on which the United States lags behind the Europeans, it is climate change. There is general agreement on long-term emissions targets, but Europe is rightly urging swifter and larger emissions reductions by 2020. Mr. Obama would do well to listen and push Congress toward more adventurous short-term reductions when he returns home.
The recession has hit the world’s poorest countries hardest. Fortunately, many rich nations, despite their own economic troubles, increased aid commitments last year. Mr. Obama promised to double the United States’ aid budget by 2015. But aid from G-8 countries is still $25 billion short of the $105 billion a year they committed to by next year, measured in 2009 dollars. This week’s summit should pledge to meet that goal — and each country should announce a specific contribution for this year and next.
Traditionally, the host sets the tone, theme and agenda for these gatherings. But Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has directed most of his political energies in recent weeks to try to fend off newspaper charges that he patronized paid female escorts and entertained minimally clad under-age women. Showmanship: perhaps. Leadership: no.
Other attendees have been less colorful, but not much more helpful. Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has dragged her feet on applying badly needed stimulus to Europe’s largest economy. Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, who helped rally support for African development at the 2005 summit hosted by his predecessor, Tony Blair, has stumbled badly since taking over and is keeping a low profile. Taro Aso, Japan’s prime minister, is equally unpopular at home and afflicted by a particularly narrow nationalist worldview, even by parochial Japanese standards.
Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, leads a weak minority government. President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia labors under the shadow of his mentor and prime minister, Vladimir Putin — no believer in international cooperation. France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is politically dominant at home but, more than two years into his tenure, seems to have no coherent international agenda.
Every nation represented at L’Aquila has a clear interest in a stronger and faster economic recovery, stopping Iran from building nuclear weapons, slowing global warming and helping the world’s poorest nations prosper. It is up to Mr. Obama to remind and energize them.

A version of this article appeared in print on July 8, 2009, of the New York edition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/opinion/08wed1.html