MOSCOW, January 16. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia, this year's president of the group of eight leading nations of the world, will host a G8 summit in the seaside southern resort of Sochi on June 4-5 to urge its partners to shift their joint efforts from reacting to challenges to managing global risks, Russia's Sherpa at the G8 Summit, Alexei Kvasov, told the Gaidar Forum, a regular meeting gathering bigwigs and pundits in Moscow. This idea is reflected in Russia’s motto — Risk Management for Sustainable Growth in a Safe World.
Russia’s agenda proposes anti-drug cooperation, counter-terrorism interaction, the settlement of conflicts, efforts to manage the risks of natural calamities and man-made disasters, as well as health security. According to Kvasov, a global poll conducted by the American Institute of Public Opinion (founded by George Gallup) last year showed that the five main concerns of the world’s population are exactly terrorism, climate change, lack of water and food, economic crisis and civil wars in Arab countries.
Another breakthrough proposal is to introduce private-public partnership at the international level. “Entrepreneurs are ready to work in many fields but need a G8 collective guarantee,” Kvasov said.
On January 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged G8 leaders to share responsibility for the world’s future development and work out comprehensive ways to alleviate acute threats and risks.
“As the holder of the G8 presidency, Russia suggests that the G8 members should develop comprehensive and cooperative mechanisms to control the most critical risks,” Putin said in an address released on the official site www.g8russia.ru available from January 1.
“To define and prevent threats to global peace and foresee the looming social and political crises and eliminate the reasons is a super-task. A person who finds a solution will deserve a Nobel prize, just like Russia deserves respect for including this issue in the G8 Summit’s agenda,” the chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Fyodor Lukyanov, said in an interview to Itar-Tass.
He believes global events are now in havoc, and major players only react to them in retrospect: “None of the serious crises was foreseen. Nobody could foretell what would follow the Arab spring in the Middle East. Hence the toss and turn of Western countries that almost resulted in strikes at Iran.”
“However strong, the G8 countries are now unable of drawing a picture of the future world. So there is an urgent need for a methodology and a new system to forecast risks,” the expert believes.
Besides, a wider range of participants should be involved in countering challenges and threats to the global peace, including big business tycoons, Lukyanov believes.
“However rich, G8 countries are unable to implement measures to avert regional crises by themselves. For this purpose, the G8 might invite international businesses as partners and provide guarantees in order to resolve global issues of food and health security, water shortage, man-made disasters and other threats on the basis of private-public partnership,” Lukyanov, the editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine believes.
The expert added that G8 shifted towards the social and political agenda, while G20 summits were engaged in economic issues. “G8 summits are not aimed at definite decisions, they are rather a form of discussing topical Eurasian issues,” Lukyanov said. “Even so, the agenda proposed by Russia will help the participants rally closer together in the face of common threats.”
Russia received the presidency baton from Britain that held the summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, last June. The previous summit in Russia was hosted by St. Petersburg in 2006.
The jubilee 40th G8 Summit in Sochi will use the facilities and infrastructure constructed for the Winter Olympics.
Putin instructed the ministries related to the issues to be discussed to place special emphasis on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking while preparing for Russia’s G8 presidency.
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