Even if Russian President Dmitry Medvedev did fall victim to the general boredom reigning at the summit, he didn't show it.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
| Other Photos |
 |
|
 |
A Middling Meeting
// Why our correspondent didn’t like the summit
The Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido ended yesterday. Kommersant special correspondent Andrey Kolesnikov thought its closing was one of the most boring in recent years, but he makes a gallant effort to liven it up in his report.
The Japanese accomplished a lot when they organized this summit. They got rid of the lines of journalists waiting to get into the press center, restaurants and buses and for that they deserve a bow for that as low as they ones they give you when they hold the elevator door open for you. I already know that is what I’m going to miss when I get back to Moscow today.
The block the doors to the press center with their solar-powered and electrical cars, they point them out at every step and even let people ride in them sometimes (at least in their fantasies). Their robots prowl the corridors and you mechanically shake hands with them. They shake back, even more mechanically.
But there was not a single computer in the whole press center. Even if they think there is not a single person who travels without a laptop now, they could put a few out just from Japanese politeness.
In the little press center, where the journalists who come 35 km. from the big one at the Hotel Windsor wait for hours in underground corridors near the kitchens, which smell of fried fish in the mornings and chocolate at night, there is not a single television screen. The summit, which is broadcast live to monitors in the big press center and the hotel, is shrunk to the size of a handkerchief at the small press center and you feel the time slipping away. So the hell with it.
I could make several more complaints of that type, but the main complaint is about the G8 leaders. It was boring with them. They were bored with one another. That much was clear from the big smiles they put on every time they got in front of television cameras. It was clear from their final documents; it was clear from their press conferences.
The host of the summit, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda was especially impressive in that sense. Almost everything – well, probably everything – depended on him. He was the one who brought universal boredom down upon all, even Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. It was enough to watch Fukuda meeting yesterday with the leaders of Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa and several international organizations, all of whom flew to Hokkaido for the one day just to set eyes upon him.
You had to see the true, completely unforced joy with which they fell on him, glad-handed him and began to tell him something in quavering voices. Even Indian President Manmohan Singh.
And he gave a sharp nod toward the television cameras and then a moment later held out his left hand to guide them into the meeting room. Some of them were taken aback. Others made some important internal decision. How else could Singh or Chinese President Hu Jintao be convinced to sign a statement, with a smile even, saying that they will halve emissions of greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere by 2050.
It just doesn’t happen.
In that sense, the apotheosis was one of Fukuda’s press conferences, which didn’t last more than a quarter hour. At some point, the translator even stopped translating. Either he fell asleep or he simply understood that it was pointless because no one was listening.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also held a final press conference. He evaluated the summit as “quite satisfactory.” Then, realizing that that was tepid praise, he added, “Very high.”
A Japanese journalist outdid himself with politeness when he began his question to the Russian president “Welcome to Japan,” as he was preparing to return to Moscow. Actually the entire question and its answer were in the same spirit. Japanese journalists, of whom there were many at that press conference, yearned to hear about the disputed islands. And so they did hear, but not what they wanted. Rather, they got the uncomforting words that the negotiation process promises to be fruitful.
A Bloomberg reporter asked about Zimbabwe. Medvedev, like the Bloomberg reporter, was left with a feeling of dissatisfaction from the election s there. I am afraid that it is impossible to say why the world community has taken such a strong and unexpected interest in those elections. But there is nothing to do. Judging from U.S. President George W. Bush’s behavior at the Windsor Hotel in closed meetings and open press conferences, as well as the behavior of his compatriots in the UN, the United States seems ready to go for broke. But so does Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Considering that Mugabe was just elected, and Bush has only months to go in office, I’d say their chances are about even.
Medvedev was asked about the American missile defense system in Europe. After the signing of the agreement between the U.S. and the Czech Republic on the locating of parts of the system, the issue has taken on different tones.
Medvedev spoke sharply for practically the first time on this tour. He was used to Russia’s voice not being heard.
“It doesn’t suit us,” he said. “We will not raise hysterics, but we will think up responsive measures and seek an adequate response.”
Thus, it seems, he will look for an adequate response. And they had been telling us that he already had one. We were even used to the idea. It made that future world seem calmer.
Then Medvedev defended the Eight from accusations that it was unnecessary and its decisions were of no interest to anyone. The decisive advantaged of the Eight, Medvedev said, was the “ability to receive a quick response to the main issues face to face… No bilateral talks can take its place, when you have to phone first one colleague, then another, then meet with someone else. It can take years.”
It would have been strange, if he had said anything else. If he had said that he was bored, for example.
The thing is, he wasn’t bored. For him, it was all like the first time.
And, heaven willing, not the last time.
Andrey Kolesnikov
All the Article in Russian as of July 10, 2008
|
|
|
