President Obama kicked off an economic summit with key European allies and other world leaders on Thursday to shore up financial support for budding democracies in the Middle East and North Africa. At the Group of 8 summit in Deauville, France, Obama sought to lay the groundwork for a financial infusion needed to keep the movements from collapsing before they gain traction.
The intense focus on anti-government demonstrations of the Arab Spring was a decided shift from the tone of the summit in recent years, when panicked global markets threatened to derail the standing of many leaders in attendance.
Leaders of the G-8 major industrial nations are expected to approve an economic package in support of the Arab countries Friday, building on Obama’s pledge to provide $2 billion in debt relief and loan guarantees to Egypt.
“Without economic modernization it will be very hard for governments trying to democratize to show people that democracy delivers,” said David Lipton, the National Security Council’s senior director for international economic affairs.
In addition to the aid, the G-8 will call on global lending institutions to help keep inflation from running wild in the economically fragile countries. Much of the uncertainty is tied to the International Monetary Fund, which will be a major player in drafting the final aid plan but which now lacks a leader following the arrest and resignation of its chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The conference is not expected to produce an exact estimate of financial aid, but the group will meet Friday with senior officials from Egypt and Tunisia who are facing uncertain futures after overthrowing entrenched dictators.
Obama also squeezed in a private get-together with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, which, unlike the back-patting that defined earlier stops in his friendly European tour, showcased the strained relationship between distant allies.
The duo maintained stern expressions throughout their joint appearance, hardly acknowledging each other while discussing a missile defense system that Medvedev says is years away from completion.
“I have told my counterpart, Barack Obama, that this issue will be finally solved in the future, like, for example, in the year 2020, but we, at present, might lay the foundation for other politicians’ activities,” Medvedev said.
Obama said the countries were “committed to working together so we can find an approach and configuration that is consistent with the security needs of both countries, … maintains a strategic balance and deals with potential threats we both share.”
Democracy movements sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, however, remained the overarching issue of the annual meeting.
White House officials say a transition to democracy would be undermined without the economic support needed to sustain radically changed governments. While the Western world has largely cheered the developments in the Middle East, the business community in those countries has fled in search of stability.
“We share a compelling interest in seeing the transitions in Egypt and Tunisia succeed and become models for the region,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wrote in a letter to the G-8. “Otherwise, we risk losing this moment of opportunity.”
After the G-8 meeting concludes Friday, Obama will travel to Poland in the last leg of his four-country, six-day European trip.
