Canada to host G8 and G20 Summits in 2010

Canada to host G8 and G20 Summits in 2010
By Heather Scoffield, The Canadian Press

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PITTSBURGH - Canada will play host to two key summits next June, putting Ottawa in a unique position to shape the post-crisis new world order.

Leaders of the G20 countries announced Friday they'll take over as the world's primary decision-making body on economic issues, stripping the G8 of its role in that area.

"The G8 is smaller, and has a far greater set of shared values and experiences. But it is not a sufficient group to deal with major international economic issues," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters after the summit.

Now that China and India are among the largest economies in the world, "you're past the stage where you can deal with major economic issues with only the established developed countries," he said.

Instead, the smaller group now will focus on national security and non-economic issues, while the G20 will allow China, India, Brazil and others to govern the global economy alongside the Western powers and Japan.

The G20 has existed as a finance ministers' forum since the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. Elevating it to a formal annual leaders' summit gives emerging markets the voice they have insisted on since their economies were hit with the recent global meltdown.

Since Canada will host leaders from both groups in June, Canadian officials will have their hands all over groundbreaking agendas that will formalize a stronger voice for emerging markets.

As the co-chair of the G20 summit, along with South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, Harper's ideas will automatically carry weight.

"The decision to host the next G20 summit in Muskoka (Ontario) in June 2010 represents an extraordinary vote of confidence by the G20 in Canada and its prime minister," said John Kirton, director of the G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto.