MOSCOW, January 16. /ITAR-TASS World Service/. Russia proposes to the G8 partners to discuss this year anti-drug cooperation, fight with terrorism, settlement of conflicts, control of risks of natural and manmade disasters and global health safety. Russian G8 Sherpa Alexei Kvasov has formulated these five priorities of Russia’s G8 presidency at the Gaidar economic forum in the Russian capital on Wednesday.

Russia’s priorities are direct civil order, Kvasov noted. Gallup global poll returns suggested that terrorism, climate, shortage of water and food, economic crisis and civil wars in Arab countries were five main concerns for people in the world in 2013.

The content of each priority offered for discussion may be quite deep, as global health safety can include medical and food aspects, Kvasov believes. In his words, Russia would like to raise not only the struggle against infectious diseases but also food safety.

The new feature in Russia’s approach to the fulfillment of the priorities will become the transition from the response to challenges to management of risks and making socio-economic effect as high as possible thanks to all measures.

A Russian G8 summit will distinguish from the previous G8 summits in the United States and Great Britain by the return of business B8 format. “We also need much to debate a quite delicate and revolutionary format — public-private partnership of international level,” Kvasov noted. Business is prepared to work in many spheres, but they need joint G8 guarantees, he said.

Dialogue between business and state authorities was quite effective in the G20 format in the previous year during Russia’s G20 presidency and in the G8 format, for instance, during France’s and Germany’s G8 lead, Russia’s B8 Sherpa Oleg Preksin, who is also the vice-president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs governing the B8 work, told Vedomosti daily. This agenda will certainly include the issues of economic risks, formation of business climate and non-commercial risks, Preksin said. At a G8 summit in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi the G8 leaders may meet with international business people and other partners in the dialogue, but the possibility and the format of this meeting should be agreed upon, Preksin said.

 

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