G8 summit in Tōyako 2008

"Family photo" of the G8

Conference venue and accommodation Windsor Hotel

The 2008 G8 summit in Tōyako was a meeting of the Group of Eight in Tōyako, Japan . The 34th G8 summit took place from July 7th to 9th, 2008. For the first time, the newly appointed heads of state or government of Russia , the United Kingdom and the host country Japan, Dmitri Anatolyevich Medvedev , Gordon Brown and Yasuo Fukuda, took part . US President George W. Bush will resign from office before the next G8 summit, representing his nation for the last time. The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took part in a G8 summit again after a break of several years.

Attendees

Group photo of the G8 at the Japanese tanabata festival

Heads of State or Government of the G8
Canada Canada	Stephen Harper
France France	Nicolas Sarkozy
Germany Germany	Angela Merkel
Italy Italy	Silvio Berlusconi
Japan Japan	Yasuo Fukuda
Russia Russia	Dmitri Anatolyevich Medvedev
United Kingdom United Kingdom	Gordon Brown
United States United States	George W. Bush

Invited observers

Group photo of the G8 + G5

Heads of government of the
outreach states
Brazil Brazil	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
India India	Manmohan Singh
Mexico Mexico	Felipe Calderón
China People's Republic People's Republic of China	Hu Jintao
South Africa South Africa	Thabo Mbeki

International organizations

African Union African Union
Commonwealth of Independent States
European Union European Union
International Atomic Energy Organization
International Energy Agency
United Nations U.N.
UNESCO UNESCO
World bank
World health organization World health organization
World trade organization

subjects

Africa

US President George W. Bush meets President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania

The future of Africa is expected to play an important role in the deliberations. In April 2007, the French press agency Agence France-Presse reported that the host Fukuda, in an interview with the then Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, had named a common Africa policy as an urgent goal of the G8 deliberations. This topic will come to the fore all the more now that the G8 summit in Heiligendamm last year did not focus on the concertation of aid measures for the continent and negotiations on debt relief for the countries. Reference was made in advance to the report of the Commission for Africa 2005, which suggested that Africa policy should rather be the subject of the 34th Summit in 2008. In line with this, the 4th International Tokyo Conference on African Development (TICAD) took place in Yokohama at the end of May 2008. The British think tank Overseas Development Institute (ODI) also expects Japan to pursue the focus on developing countries, which was set in 2000 at the 26th round of the G8 in Okinawa .

Climate change and sustainable energy sources

In spring 2007, Fukuda announced that his cabinet would work out a draft climate protection agreement, which would also find support from China and the USA. The post-Kyoto process is expected to be the subject of discussions. This includes the specification of the voluntary commitments entered into at the UN climate conference in Bali . In the final declaration, the summit participants speak of the shared vision of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050. In Heiligendamm this intention was only "seriously considered". It also stresses the importance of the contribution of emerging economies to achieving this goal. To this end, the G8 met with the outreach states as well as Australia and Indonesia on the last day of the summit . The topic of this meeting was energy security and climate change.

In this context, the Japanese government intends to promote the use of nuclear energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adopt common guidelines for the safety of nuclear power plants at the G8 summit.

World economy

Another central theme of the summit was the development of the world economy against the background of the financial and real estate crisis . Nevertheless, the declaration on the world economy paints an optimistic outlook for future developments. The best way to counter the rising raw material and food prices is through open and transparent markets.

One focus was on the protection of intellectual property. The draft of the planned Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which was made public in May 2008 and provides for strict prosecution of copyright violations , was sharply criticized by NGOs in advance. The summit participants announced their intention to sign the agreement by the end of 2008.

Security policy

The fight against terrorism and the hindering of the proliferation of nuclear weapons technologies were also on the agenda . With regard to North Korea , efforts to find a diplomatic solution were reiterated in the six-party talks , in which the issue of kidnapped Japanese citizens, which is particularly important for the Japanese government, is to be included. The Iran was asked by the participants to halt its uranium enrichment program in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency to cooperate.

Protests

Protests in Japan

As at the previous G8 summits, tens of thousands of demonstrators were expected on Hokkaidō, and 20,000 police officers are said to have been on duty. According to an Indymedia article, more than 40 union activists have been arrested. On June 29th, the first demonstrations with more than a thousand participants took place in Tokyo .