Issues
The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions. This summit was primarily an economic forum for the global economic powerhouses; and the focus of this G8 Summit was discussion of economic issues. Some of the pressing items on the agenda:
- Open trade between Russia and the United States, including discussion of Russian entry into the World Trade Organization
- Multi-billion dollar aircraft manufacturing contracts, in light of strategy shifts at Airbus and Boeing and worsening airline business performance
- Free energy markets, especially regarding Russia and former Soviet republics, as well as petroleum from the Middle East
- Nigeria, Venezuela, and the Persian Gulf regions have all had reduced energy exports in the past weeks due to various political and technical issues
- Rights for exploration and exploitation of natural gas in Russia and the North Atlantic Ocean / Baltic Sea
- Alternative energy forms, especially relaxing nuclear power regulations; and development of hydrogen as an economically viable energy platform
- Security — both militarily and financially ensuring the future in energy supplies
- Discussion of economic impacts of global instability, drugs, and terrorism
- Education priorities for developed nations, especially encouraging businesses to support education
- Global system to monitor and contain infectious diseases
Read more about this topic: 32nd G8 Summit
Famous quotes containing the word issues:
“The “universal moments” of child rearing are in fact nothing less than a confrontation with the most basic problems of living in society: a facing through one’s children of all the conflicts inherent in human relationships, a clarification of issues that were unresolved in one’s own growing up. The experience of child rearing not only can strengthen one as an individual but also presents the opportunity to shape human relationships of the future.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The hard truth is that what may be acceptable in elite culture may not be acceptable in mass culture, that tastes which pose only innocent ethical issues as the property of a minority become corrupting when they become more established. Taste is context, and the context has changed.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“I can never bring you to realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb-nails, or the great issues that may hang from a boot-lace.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)