THE 2003 SUMMIT OF THE G8
June 3, 2003
Evian, France
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien today expressed satisfaction that G8 Leaders
came together at the Evian Summit to demonstrate their common will to strengthen
the global economy, enhance sustainable development and improve international
security.
"The results of this Summit clearly demonstrate that G8 Leaders are
committed to strong multilateral action on issues of global concern," said
the Prime Minister. "I was especially pleased to report to my colleagues on
the fundamental strength of the Canadian economy as well as significant progress
achieved to date on the Africa Action Plan and the Global Partnership Against
the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction."
The Prime Minister also announced that Canada will invest $83 million over
the next five years to help developing countries provide their citizens with
better access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The funding, which
includes $50 million committed from the Canada Fund for Africa, will support
projects that target capacity building, transboundary basin management, as well
as water management at the local level. He further announced a $20 million
commitment to fund polio eradication efforts in Nigeria, bringing the total
Canadian contribution towards eliminating polio by 2005 to $115 million.
At the Evian Summit, G8 Leaders agreed to action plans on: trade, famine,
water, science and technology for sustainable development, health, marine
environment and tanker safety, the Global Partnership Against the Spread of
Weapons of Mass Destruction, securing radioactive sources, combating terrorism,
man-portable defence systems, as well as a Declaration on Fostering Growth and
Promoting a Responsible Market Economy. They also endorsed a report prepared by
their Personal Representatives for Africa on progress achieved to date in the
implementation of the G8 Africa Action Plan and adopted a Statement on the
Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
G8 Leaders also committed to further action on:
- meeting the timelines and objectives of the Doha Round WTO negotiations;
- implementing sound macro-economic policies and structural reforms to
promote growth and economic development;
- strengthening the international framework for financial crisis prevention
and resolution;
- implementing the New Partnership for Africa's Development and the G8
Africa Action Plan;
- supporting a range of global health initiatives, including combating
HIV/AIDS, polio and SARS and improving developing countries' access to
affordable drugs and treatments;
- addressing the challenge of global poverty;
- assisting Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) to achieve lasting debt
sustainability through continued implementation of the HIPC initiative;
- promoting the e-government model in developing countries to encourage
efficiency and transparency;
- promoting human security;
- strengthening international efforts to tackle the problem of illegal
logging;
- preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and related
technologies and materials;
- strengthening standards to ensure the security of radioactive sources to
prevent radiological terrorism;
- preventing the use of man-portable defence systems against civil aviation;
- reducing the traffic in small arms.
Leaders also reached agreement on the establishment of the G8 Nuclear Safety
and Security Group and on the adoption of its mandate and core principles. They
also discussed the Kyoto Protocol and exchanged views and made recommendations
regarding Iraq, Israel and Palestine, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, Algeria
and Zimbabwe.
Last week the Prime Minister also announced two other significant Canadian G8
initiatives: $149 million towards new projects under the Global Partnerships
Program and $60 million towards new projects in support of youth and agriculture
in Africa. A national report entitled Canada Implements the G8 Africa Action
Plan: Delivering on Commitments, One Year Later was also released.
The Chair's Summary, which provides further details on the outcomes of the G8
Summit, follows this release.
Other final Summit documents are available at http://www.g8.gc.ca
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PMO Press Office: (613) 957-5555
CHAIR'S SUMMARY
Evian, 3 June 2003
We met in Evian for our annual Summit, confident that, through our joint
efforts, we can address the challenges of promoting growth, enhancing
sustainable development and improving security. Our discussions with the Leaders
of emerging and developing countries (Algeria, Brazil, China, Egypt, India,
Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa) and with the
President of the Swiss Confederation and the representatives of the UN, the
World Bank, the IMF and the WTO provided an opportunity for an exchange of views
on growth and international co-operation. New proposals have been put forward
which could underpin our future work. The following is a summary of our
decisions.
1. Strengthening Growth World-Wide
Macro-economics, structural reforms, trade and responsible market
economy. Our economies face many challenges. However, major downside
risks have receded and the conditions for a recovery are in place. We are
confident in the growth potential of our economies. We reaffirm our
commitment to multilateral co-operation, to achieve the objectives and
overall timetable set out in the Doha Development Agenda as reflected in our
Action Plan on Trade, and to implement sound macro-economic policies
supportive of growth, while ensuring domestic and external sustainability.
Our common responsibility is to raise growth in our own economies, and thus
contribute to a stronger global economy.
As this contribution should rely more strongly on structural reforms and
flexibility, we therefore reaffirm our commitment to:
- implement structural reforms of labour, product and capital markets;
-
implement pension and health care reforms, as we face a common challenge
of ageing populations;
-
raise productivity through education and lifelong learning and by creating
an environment where entrepreneurship can thrive, fostering competition and
promoting public and private investment in knowledge and innovation;
-
strengthen investor confidence by improving corporate governance,
enhancing market discipline and increasing transparency;
-
the principles of our Declaration on Fostering Growth and Promoting a
Responsible Market Economy, accompanied with specific actions to improve
transparency and to fight corruption more effectively, including a specific
initiative on extractive industries
Prevention and resolution of financial crisis. We welcomed the progress
achieved over the last year on strengthening the international framework for
financial crisis prevention and resolution so as to improve conditions for
sustained private investment in emerging markets. The IMF should continue to
enhance its surveillance by making it more comprehensive, independent,
accountable and transparent. It should also pursue work on issues of general
relevance to the restructuring of sovereign debt. We will exercise improved
discipline in the provision of official finance.
We remain committed to promoting an early and widespread adoption of
collective action clauses, building on the concrete steps already taken by
several countries. We welcome initiatives being taken by issuers, the private
sector and our officials on the development of a Code of Conduct. We look
forward to their progress.
We welcomed the agreement reached by our Finance Ministers on a new tailored
Paris Club approach for responding to debt problems of non-HIPC countries. We
expect this "Evian approach" to address debt sustainability problems
more conclusively, while ensuring that debt restructuring remains the last
resort.
We look forward to the results of ongoing efforts to strengthen the
international framework for financial crisis prevention and resolution.
2. Enhancing Sustainable Development
We focused on the implementation of the internationally agreed Millennium and
Johannesburg Development Goals in the following areas:
Africa. Our discussions with the Presidents of Algeria, Nigeria, Senegal
and South Africa, the Leaders of countries represented on the NEPAD Steering
Committee, demonstrated our common will to contribute to the development of
Africa. We endorsed the report prepared by our Africa Personal Representatives.
We agreed to widen our dialogue to other African Leaders on NEPAD and the G8
Africa Action Plan. We invite interested countries and relevant international
institutions to appoint senior representatives to join this partnership. We will
review progress on our Action Plan no later than 2005 on the basis of a report.
Famine. To alleviate the threat facing millions of people, especially in
Africa, we committed to responding to the emergency food aid needs and agreed on
ways to improve famine prevention mechanisms and long term food security.
Water. Following on from the Kyoto World Water Forum, we adopted an Action
Plan to help meet the Millennium and Johannesburg goals of halving the number of
people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.
Health. We agreed on measures to:
- strengthen the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and
other bilateral and multilateral efforts, notably through our active
participation in the donors' and supporters' conference to be hosted in
Paris this July;
- improve access to health care, including to drugs and treatments at
affordable prices, in poor countries;
- encourage research on diseases mostly affecting developing
countries;
- mobilise the extra funding needed to eradicate polio by 2005;
- improve international co-operation against new epidemics such as SARS.
Financing for development. We reaffirmed our commitment to address the
challenge of global poverty and our support for the Millennium Development Goals
and the Monterrey consensus. We noted that achieving these ambitious goals would
require considerable efforts from both developed and developing countries,
including increased resources. We welcomed the report of our Finance Ministers'
discussions on our increased resources and on financing instruments. We invite
them to report back to us in September on the issues raised by the financing
instruments, including the proposal for a new International Finance Facility.
Debt. We reaffirmed our commitment to the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries
(HIPC) initiative, launched at our Cologne Summit. Since Kananaskis, where we
pledged to provide our share of the shortfall of up to $1 billion, progress has
continued in the implementation of the HIPC initiative. Twenty-six of the
world's poorest countries are now benefiting from debt relief, totalling more
than $60 billion committed in nominal terms. However, in the light of continued
implementation challenges and the slow pace of country progress in the
initiative, we have identified the following priority areas:
- To encourage and
assist eligible countries in taking the steps necessary to complete the HIPC
process, our Finance Ministers asked the IMF and the World Bank to identify, by
their next Annual Meetings, the specific impediments in each country and the
steps that need to be taken to tackle them;
- Not all official and commercial
creditors have yet agreed to participate in the initiative. We urged the IMF and
the World Bank to intensify their efforts to secure the full participation of
all creditors. Further options to deal with the issues of litigation should also
be explored;
- We welcomed the progress made towards completing our commitment
in Kananaskis to fill the estimated financing gap in the HIPC Trust Fund,
through the pledges of $850 million made in Paris in October 2002. We will
continue to monitor the financing needs of the Trust Fund;
- We reaffirmed the
objective of ensuring lasting debt sustainability in HIPC countries and noted
that these countries will remain vulnerable to exogenous shocks, even after
reaching completion point. In this context, we have asked our Finance Ministers
to review by September mechanisms to encourage good governance and the
methodology for calculating the amount of "topping-up" debt relief
available to countries at completion point based on updated cost estimates.
Market-based mechanisms and other effective instruments to address the impact of
commodity price fluctuations on low-income countries should also be explored.
E-Government. We welcomed work on the e-government model promoting
efficiency and transparency in developing countries and will work towards
enlarging the number of beneficiary countries.
Human Security. We took note of the report of the Commission on Human
Security submitted to the United Nations Secretary-General.
Science and technology for sustainable development. We adopted an Action
Plan on how best to use science and technology for sustainable development
focused on three areas:
- global observation;
- cleaner, more efficient energy
and the fight against air pollution and climate change;
- agriculture and
biodiversity.
Those of us who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol reaffirm their
determination to see it enter into force.
Illegal logging. From the perspective of sustainable forest management, we
confirmed our determination to strengthen international efforts to tackle the
problem of illegal logging.
Marine environment and tanker safety. We endorsed an Action Plan to reduce
the threat posed by excessive exploitation of marine resources and to enhance
maritime security.
Nuclear safety. In accordance with our statement at Kananaskis, we
established the G8 Nuclear Safety and Security Group, and adopted its mandate
and the Core Principles shared by each of us, to promote the safe and secure use
of civil nuclear technology.
3. Improving Security
Commendable progress has been achieved against terrorism world-wide. However,
we note with concern the remaining threats of terrorist networks, the challenges
of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in several countries and the
risks to peace and security that unresolved conflicts pose to the world.
Non-proliferation. We adopted a Statement on the proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction and endorsed an Action Plan on the prevention of
radiological terrorism and the securing of radioactive sources.
Terrorism. We adopted an Action Plan on capacity building against
terrorism and created a Counter-Terrorism Action Group (CTAG), in support of UN
Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), in order to combat terrorist groups
world-wide. One of the best ways to do it is to choke off the flow of financing
that supports it. We direct Finance Ministers to assess progress and identify
next steps. To develop strengthened co-operation, we also ask Ministers to
initiate a dialogue with counterparts in other countries, including those whose
financial institutions, both formal and informal, may serve as conduits for such
financing, at their forthcoming meeting in Dubai next September.
Transport security and control of Manpads. In order to reduce further the
risks of terrorist action against mass transportation, we reviewed the
implementation of the measures agreed upon at Kananaskis and decided to take new
initiatives concerning sea and air transport security. We agreed on actions to
prevent the use of Man-Portable Air Defence Systems (Manpads) against civil
aviation.
Global Partnership. We reaffirmed our Kananaskis commitments to prevent
terrorists, or those that harbour them, from acquiring weapons of mass
destruction. To that end, we reviewed the implementation of the Global
Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction
launched last year. We welcomed the progress achieved so far. We are determined
to sustain and broaden our efforts towards: - reaching our Kananaskis commitment
of raising up to US$20 billion over 10 years; - developing and initiating
concrete and worthwhile projects; - fully implementing the guidelines; - opening
this initiative to new countries. To this end, we endorsed an Action Plan on the
Global Partnership.
Small arms. We welcomed the upcoming meeting of States on the illicit
traffic in small arms to be held at the United Nations in New York in July 2003.
4. Regional Issues
Iraq. We welcomed the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1483 and share the conviction that the time has now come to
build peace and reconstruct Iraq. Our shared objective is a fully sovereign,
stable and democratic Iraq, at peace with its neighbours and firmly on the road
to progress. We welcomed the announcement made by the UN regarding a preparatory
meeting for an international conference on the reconstruction of Iraq.
Israel and Palestine. We welcomed the approval by the Palestinians and by
Israel of the Quartet Roadmap and emphasised our determination to jointly
support its implementation. We discussed the desirability of reaching a
comprehensive peace settlement that includes Syria and Lebanon. We tasked our
relevant Ministers to examine as soon as possible the measures necessary to
support a plan for the revitalisation and reconstruction of the Palestinian
economy, including the leveraging of private investment, within the framework of
the Middle East Peace Process.
North Korea. We addressed the North Korean nuclear issue in our Statement
on non-proliferation. We support the efforts made by the different parties to
seek by peaceful means a comprehensive solution to the North Korean nuclear
issue and to other matters, including unresolved humanitarian problems such as
the abductions. We also support the Peace and Prosperity Policy pursued by the
Republic of Korea.
Afghanistan. We confirmed our support for President Karzai's Transitional
Administration. We reaffirmed that the Bonn Process needs to be fully
implemented, in both spirit and substance. We expressed our remaining concern on
the security situation. In order to combat drug trafficking from Afghanistan, we
support full implementation of the Afghan National Drug Strategy and the
"Paris Pact" proposed on 22 May by the United Nations during the
Conference on Drug Routes.
Iran. We addressed the proliferation implications of Iran's advanced
nuclear programme in our Statement on non-proliferation.
Algeria. We expressed our deepest sympathy for the Algerian people after
the recent devastating earthquakes. We are providing urgent humanitarian aid
and, to address the financial consequences of this situation, we are instructing
our relevant Ministers to report within one month on how best to help Algeria
recover.
Zimbabwe. We are concerned about reports of further violence by the
authorities in Zimbabwe against their own people. We called on the Government of
Zimbabwe to respect the right to peaceful demonstration. Consistent with the
fundamental principles of the NEPAD partnership, we welcomed the contribution of
other African States to promoting a peaceful resolution of the crisis and a
prosperous and democratic future for the people of Zimbabwe.
* * *
We welcomed the offer of the President of the United States to host our next
Summit in 2004.
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