G8 Nations Agree to Promote Economic Growth, Job Creation
By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer
Washington - President Obama says leaders of the Group of Eight (G8)
nations agreed at the 2012 Camp David Summit to promote further economic growth
and job creation that will stabilize and strengthen their economies for the
future.
"For the past three years, our nations have worked together and with others
- first to rescue a global economy from free fall, then to wrestle it back to a
path of recovery and growth," Obama told journalists May 19 at the closing of
the two-day summit held about 100 kilometers (62 miles) outside of Washington at
the presidential retreat Camp David.
The G8 advanced economies meeting May 18-19 included Britain, Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Obama immediately
left Washington after the close of the economic summit to open the 2012 NATO
Summit being held May 20-21. Obama is hosting the event in his hometown of
Chicago.
While saying that the global economy during the past three years has been
tested at times by shocks, both manmade and from natural disasters, the leaders
agreed that expanding jobs and growth offer the best hope for the future. Obama
said the current serious situation in the eurozone affects the U.S. economy and
others far removed from European nations, which is why coordinated, collective
action is essential.
Obama said that the economic situation facing Europe is more complicated
than the economic recovery the United States faced in his first three years in
office. But the U.S. recovery gives some lessons that the European nations
should follow as they work for their recovery, Obama said. He said there is a
political and economic dilemma facing Greece and slow growth and high
unemployment in several other eurozone countries. Resolving those issues, Obama
said, requires coordinated agreement among the 17 nations that comprise the
eurozone.
"We recognize that and we respect that," Obama added. "The direction the
debate has taken recently should give us confidence. Europe has taken
significant steps to manage the crisis. Individual countries and the European
Union as a whole have engaged in significant reforms that will increase the
prospects of long-term growth," the president told journalists.
Every leader meeting at Camp David understands the stakes, knows the
magnitude of the choices they have to make and acknowledges the enormous
political, economic and social costs if they do not, Obama added.
In addition to addressing the economic situation facing the eurozone
nations, the G8 leaders also agreed to address climate change, in part by
agreeing to reduce emissions of short-lived pollutants. And in the face of
increasing disruptions in the global supply of oil, the leaders agreed to more
closely monitor world energy markets and be ready to call on the International
Energy Agency to take such action as needed to ensure that the market remains
supplied fully and in a timely fashion, Obama told journalists.
"We also announced a new alliance on food security with African leaders and
the private sector as part of the effort to lift 50 million people out of
poverty over the next decade," Obama said. "We discussed our support for a
sustainable [Afghanistan] economy as we wind down the war, and we reaffirmed our
support for the democratic transitions under way in the Middle East and North
Africa."
The future course of relations with Afghanistan and ending the long-running
operations there will be a significant topic of the NATO nations and allies and
friends also attending the summit in Chicago. And Obama said that next week
European leaders will gather to discuss their next steps on the eurozone.
In June, the nations of the Group of 20 advanced economies will meet in
Mexico.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs,
U.S. Department of State. )
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