The two had a brief meeting today, "cordial" was the big word for the day. The Bush-Medvedev relationship doesn't seem like it will take on the buddy-buddy tone of the Bush-Putin relationship (well the early part of that relationship at least), but in reality the important relationship will be the one Medvedev has with the new American president next year.
Medvedev has continued his charm offensive with Western leaders, holding one-on-one talks also with the leaders of Germany, France and the UK. Medvedev is trying to the lower tensions with Western leaders that have been stoked these past few years by former President Vladimir Putin. So Bush was "George" to Medvedev, the close Russian-German relationship was lauded and French President Sarkozy was thanked again for a congratulatory call he made to Medvedev on his election earlier this year. On the issues though, Russia remains at odds with the Western powers over issues like the expansion of NATO.
As for the rest of the G8 summit, the environment was to be the big topic of discussion, though that is quickly being overshadowed by talk of energy costs. Consider this, since the previous G8 summit just last year, the price of a barrel of oil has basically doubled, and that has had a ripple effect around the globe.
Sarkozy, meanwhile, made a call to expand the G8 to include more developing nations, specifically: China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. China, India and Brazil, along with Russia, make up the "BRIC" nations - the world's fastest growing, and most dynamic economies, so a good case could be made to include them. But Mexico and South Africa? Sarkozy has some work to do to explain how including them will improve the G8.
Finally, anti-poverty campaigners in Africa are holding a shadow summit in Mali to call attention to the G8's failing to live up to aid commitments made to Africa at the 2005 summit. There the G8 nations pledged to increase aid to Africa by $25 billion by 2010. Now, less than two years from that deadline, the G8 nations have ponied up only about $3 billion.
Many participants blasted the wealthy nations for failing to meet their commitments, though some at Mali suggested that it was time for African nations to come up with their own home-grown development plans and not to rely on wealthy, foreign powers. It was also said that African nations must do more to oppose dictators like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. This, I think, is a very important point. Many debt relief and development plans that have been proposed for Africa in the past few years have included provisions for good governance - basically the money will flow once nation's commit to transparent government, free and fair elections and all the other trappings of a well-functioning democracy. But good governance should also mean not tolerating or supporting dictatorships among your neighbors.
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