Priti 4 Witham

Yesterday I was full of optimum about the G8 Summit following the end of day outcomes, as well as having a quite admiration for the Summit host the German Chancellor. However what a difference a day makes! Not only am I referring to Sir Bob Geldof’s description of the Summit as a ‘total farce’, but I’m also referring to the bare faced cheek of the world’s leading group of countries to merely ‘repeat’ their 2005 Gleneagles summit commitment to double aid for Africa by the end of the decade. Clearly Blair’s contribution to this summit was to teach his G8 partners the art of making a re-announcement. Perhaps I am being a little too harsh on the most powerful leaders in the world, but from where I stand, the headline figure of $60bn to tackle killer diseases may be a  headline grabber, but the reality is that the G8 have diluted their previous promise of universal AIDS prevention and treatment by 2010. Furthermore, while I appreciate that support to Africa should not always be just about money, where were the references about ensuring that aid money actually reaches the people in need (as opposed to lining the pockets of corrupt bodies/individuals/organisations)? And surprise surprise, I note that there was no mention about stopping the bloodshed and violence in Darfur and Sudan. Sir Bob Geldof was being polite when he described this summit as a total farce. So much for Blair’s legacy on Africa……..

As the Group of Eight leaders got down to serious business on day 1 of the G8 summit today, spare a thought for the summit’s hostess – the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. For all the hardline pre-summit talk of no deals on climate change and the resurrection of cold war talk over missile shields by Bush and Putin, Merkel has gone into the summit in the unenviable position of having to navigate her way through the personal agenda’s of certain outgoing leaders focussed on securing their ‘legacy’, whilst looking to diplomatically secure substantive (and even headline grabbing) results by the end of the summit. Not much to ask, from what appears to be Germany’s somewhat low profile first woman Chancellor – low profile in compassion to the ‘celebrity’ style of certain other G8 Leaders and not to mention her predecessor. However, unlike her more flashy G8 counterparts, Ms Merkel (not including Nicolas Sarkozy whose popularity was reflected in his recent election victory) is riding a wave of popularity at home. This is despite all those predictions after the German elections in 2005 that she would not survive six months as Chancellor because of her slim electoral majority at the time. Domestically, she has not only survived, but flourished and she has risen to the challenge of addressing some of Germany’s big problems. So what better opportunity for Ms Merkel than to extend the personal respect and authority she has won at home to the international stage to prove herself as a credible dealmaker. Judging by the evening headlines of an agreement on cuts in carbon emissions, alongside constructive talks between Bush and Putin on missile shields, Germany’s first woman Chancellor has shown that there is a place for quiet and competent diplomacy in the modern political world. She is in my view a remarkable breath of fresh air compared to the tied old faces who have dominated G8 Summit’s over the last decade.