G8 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting from 25 to 27 June in Trieste
24/06/2009
The chief items on the agenda for the G8 Foreign Ministers, when they assemble in Trieste from 25 to 27 June, will be security and fighting terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation, piracy and, first and foremost, the stabilisation of Afghanistan. Over 40 delegations will be there: the G5 countries (China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa) plus Egypt, the international organisations, a number of financial institutes and other bodies will be attending – according to the issues addressed during the various sessions – in addition to the eight major countries.
The Trieste G8, which opens tomorrow evening with a working dinner, will focus attention on the Afghanistan question, so the neighbouring countries and the other regional and international stakeholders in the area’s development have also been invited to take part in the proceedings. The G8 Foreign Ministers will first hold a meeting with the delegation from Kabul, subsequently extending their consultations, initially to the other countries in the area and, later on, to other countries engaged in the drive to stabilise it. The main multilateral organisations operating on the ground (UNAMA, UNODC, UNHCR and NATO) will also be attending.
Two specific sessions will be given over to the Afghanistan issue: the first, on Friday 26, will address the topics bound up with frontier management and fighting illicit trafficking; the agenda for the second, on Saturday 27, features talks on the development of the country’s infrastructure, refugee relief and migration management, agriculture and food security.
As regards the other items on the Trieste agenda, in addition to the attention traditionally devoted to non-proliferation and fighting terrorism and transnational organised crime, the piracy phenomenon will loom large in this year’s final statement: the intention is to step up coordination of the drive to counter the phenomenon and support the multilateral operations under way in the Gulf of Aden and off the coast of Somalia.
Iran will also loom large on the agenda: the dramatic aftermath of the 12 June presidential election will be discussed, not least in terms of its repercussions on the negotiations on the nuclear issue. North Korea will be another hot topic, as it has fuelled fresh anxieties in the wake of last May’s nuclear test, conducted in breach of Security Council Resolution 1718, and the ballistic missile launches, which are seen as a provocation that jeopardises regional stability.
The Middle East Quartet (United States, EU, Russia and UN), on which the new US Administration’s commitment confers fresh importance, will also be holding a meeting on the fringe of the G8. The goal will be to impart fresh thrust to the Middle East peace process and restate the necessity of arriving at a solution based on the “two peoples, two states” principle.
The Trieste Foreign Ministers’ Meeting is the major occasion for political talks among the diplomatic service chiefs in the approach to the L'Aquila Summit. A second foreign ministers’ meeting is scheduled for 24 September this year, on the fringe of the United Nations General Assembly.
