The G8 summit that US President George W. Bush and seven other world leaders are attending next weekend in Russia is often billed as a gathering of the world's leading economic powers.
It is not.
Consider: China, now the world's fourth-largest economy and the nation with the most influence over renegade North Korea, is not a member.
Neither is India, the world's largest democracy and one of its fastest-growing economies. Nor is South Korea, Brazil, Mexico or Spain, each with a larger economy than G8 member Russia.
In fact, Spain recently inched past member Canada as the world's No. 8 economy, according to a World Bank tabulation.
Often officials from developing nations are invited as observers to the summit but have no formal roles. Among those invited to this year's gathering is Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Critics view the annual economic summit as a Cold War relic that needs to be reconstituted. It was formed in the 1970s, but economic dynamics are far different three decades later. The astonishing growth of some Asian nations and parts of Latin America have altered the math.
Yet expanding or changing the membership is not on this year's agenda, nor is it likely to be on next year's. Few officials from member nations seem eager to talk about the subject.
White House aides insist the president is more focused on substantive issues.
Igor Shuvalov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's top summit adviser, acknowledges that Russia lags behind the other seven members in terms of current economic output. But stay tuned, he says.
"We believe the importance of Russia in our global world will change. We have very talented people and well-educated labor. We have oil and gas," said Shuvalov in a telephone interview with US reporters. "We will develop very quickly as one of the major G8 countries."
Even now, Russia is economically "stronger than some G8 members," Shuvalov asserted without offering backup data.
"I don't want to name those countries," he said.
What is now known as the G8 was formed in 1975 as the Group of Major Industrialized Democracies. At the time, it consisted of the US, Japan, Britain, France and Germany -- undisputedly the world's five biggest economic powers at the time. Italy was added in 1976, Canada in 1977 and Russia in 1998.
The group holds annual summits. Economic themes are supposed to prevail, but often are overshadowed by events of the day and global politics.
Last year's summit in Scotland was jolted by multiple terrorist bomb blasts on London's transit system. This year's session probably will dwell on North Korea's recent barrage of missile tests and the nuclear aspirations it shares with Iran.
Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International and an expert on economic summitry, advocates expanding the G8 to include other modern economic powers, especially China.
"When this group was formed in the 1970s, the members were the main influences on the globe. Now you've got a lot of other countries that have a lot more influence than they did 30 years ago and who are not in the process," said Hormats, who helped Presidents Carter, Ford and Reagan prepare for economic summits.
China's membership could help the G8 this year deal with North Korea, Hormats said. He noted that last year, the summit partners called on OPEC to produce more oil, yet neither Saudi Arabia nor any other OPEC member are participants.
This year's summit is in Putin's hometown, St. Petersburg. It is Russia's first time to hold the G8 presidency, a controversy itself given Putin's moves to restrict political and economic freedoms.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique