Politics
Obama hosts G8 leaders at Camp David summit
He wouldn’t comment on reports that Canada has been asked to leave some special forces in Afghanistan after 2014. Hollande, meantime, wants to withdraw all French combat troops by the end of this year, nearly two years ahead of the agreed NATO schedule.
Europe’s economic crisis will also dominate G8 discussions. That’s a shift for G8 leaders, says the director of the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto.
It used to be that the G20 focused on the economy while the G8 tackled global security and development issues, said John Kirton. The Camp David summit changes that.
“It’s going to be about a G8 strategy for growth which will be smart, sophisticated and, it is to be hoped, it will be sufficiently clear and compelling to convince markets, citizens, voters across the G8 and beyond that it will work,” he said.
“So that’s new for the G8. It’s been many, many years since the G8 has focused like a laser beam on the economy and in containing the great economic crisis that’s burgeoning at the moment.”
Camp David, with its winding trails and lush woods, has a storied past.
