G8 Youth Summit
Over the bay of Yokohama freedom of the world extended, and the lights of skyscrapers being reflected in the water, made us happy… and it was impossible to find a better place to meet young, talented and motivated people from different countries and continents, ready to work together to develop the idea of better future.
The third annual G8 Youth Summit was held from 10 to 19 March 2008, which brought together about 100 young professionals in the field of international relations, international economics, law, young business people in Japan, with the active support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
First G8 Youth summit was organized in 2006 in Russia, St. Petersburg by NGO «International Youth Diplomacy League» (later became a youth trend «Business Russia») with the support of the Presidential Administration of Russia. The idea was to collect the eight representatives of the leading universities of the policy of each country of the Group of Eight, which would play the role of the President of their country, sectoral ministers and sherpas and developed the general solutions for the agenda during the negotiations and discussions, as if they were at the real G8 Summit. Results of the first G8 Youth Summit were discussed at the highest level in the State Duma of Russia. The results were brought to the attention of the Council of Rectors of Universities of Russia. After successful completion of the Youth Summit 2006 the International Youth Diplomacy League decided to hold similar events every year. A network of organizational committee on preparation and holding of the G8 Youth summit was created in eight countries. In 2007 the League together with German partners held a youth summit in Berlin. Today the Youth League is preparing a G8 summit in Italy in 2009 and 2010 in Canada.
A year before the Summit Organizing Committee for preparation of the youth summit are working on the selection of national delegations and the organizational, analytical preparation of the summit, interact with the foreign ministries and heads of administrations of their countries, which in turn support the project. Beginning with the 2009 year in the Youth Summit will be a meeting of young representatives of the largest companies of the Group of Eight, and their decisions will be made to the G8 Youth communique.
Also representatives of major universities 8 states met at the G8 Youth Summit in Tokyo: Keio University, Tokyo University (Japan), Seton Hall (USA), Humboldt University, Free University of Berlin (Germany), Institute of Political Studies (France), Moscow State Institute, St. Petersburg State University (Russia), University of Toronto (Canada), Bocconi University (Italy), Cambridge, Oxford (UK). Young representatives of business and public organizations in Russia were in the role of young advisers of the President and the ministers of Russia. Acting in tandem with the students who were playing the role of the Presidents and Ministers of the industry, they ensured that the Russian delegation was objectively recognized as the strongest and most prepared both on the agenda. Head of Group of Eight Foreign Minister met with the Russian delegation at the Embassy Youth Summit and held a consultation on relevant topics. During the conversation, Mr. Yasnosokirsky expressed approval of the implementation of this project, expressed confidence in its development and to attract even more attention to it by the official authorities, businesses and public organizations in the future.
In 2008, the official sponsor of the Russian delegation of the G8 Youth summit was the «Mirax Group» company, the sponsor — the «Lenenergo» company. Young representatives of these companies became the members of the official Russian delegation at the Youth Summit.
As in the real summit, this one was attended by the Youth observer countries, China and Brazil that participated in the meetings of the Presidents. Pressing issues were on the agenda of our time: 2008 issue of climate change, complete with a problem of deforestation and the impacts of the Kyoto Protocol, has been thoroughly examined in a group of delegates, which played the role of the Presidents of their countries. But the topics not cause argues or misunderstanding as all the members were ready to cooperate. Representatives from all eight states, as well as Brazil and China, agreed that the discussion of climate change should be extended to other members: Group of Eight countries plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Also they speak on energy security and alternative energy sources in the focus of climate change.
Before the Foreign Ministers at the G8 Youth Summit was a wide range of issues for discussion: the question of the independence of States, questions the relationship of government agencies to nongovernmental organizations, the topic of the settlement of regional crises, the concept of «human security» in the aspect of regional crises. The foreign ministers discussed the issue of the modern application of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The issue of Kosovo was also mentioned. However taking into consideration the fact that the issue is very controversial and the format of the meeting does not allow to discuss all details of this conflict, the members only agreed that the peace process must pass through negotiations of political parties and movements under the supervision of the UN Security Council.
Iran and its nuclear program was discussed by the youth ministers of defense. All the ministers agreed to confirm Russia’s role in leading to the settlement of the nuclear issue, as Russia has influence in the region. But at the same time, Russia was accused of double standards: on the one hand, Russia imposes sanctions against nuclear proliferation, on the other — supported by Iran to develop peaceful nuclear energy. The Afghan question was also raised. The members suggested substitution of the UN peacekeepers into NATO troops and bringing the troops of the SCO. Final consensus was not achieved, but the proposal itself and the resonance caused by them — is the result.
The ministers of internal affairs at the G8 Youth summit in Japan agreed to establish a common base of potential terrorists, by combining existing data on them and make further additions to the database, the creation and widespread introduction of high-tech ID cards that replace an identity card, with retinas scanned, fingerprints and other biometric data.
Global financial crisis were at the focus of youth ministers of the economy. The main problem here is that the rating agencies do not always give an adequate assessment, which further worsens the degree of the situation within the state. Eight requires transparency of sovereign wealth funds from Russia. As young foreign ministers, economists have discussed the problem of medicine, or rather, inconsistency in its prices. The representatives of Great Britain and the United States were against the unification of the cost, saying it was unprofitable for the economy.
The discussion in the group of Ministers of Education began with a presentation by an observer from Brazil, who presented data on how different levels of education in Brazil. Slowly the discussion turned to the Millennium Declaration (Millennium development goals). All the ministers agreed that the goals set out in the Declaration will not be achieved in time. Another problem was the discussion of education in Africa, as UK was against the imposition of his European training system. Particular emphasis was put on the need to improve and develop the practice of exchange students.
Youth Labour Ministers worked very quickly. Already in the first few days they managed to agree on major issues: social support from the state of women and youth, and social responsibility of employers. On the issue of immigration the members were able to agree on the fact that this problem was specific to each country. They defined the concepts of legal and illegal immigration.
At the Youth Summit of Eight each delegation had its own Sherpa, who previously coordinated the agenda with the Sherpas of other countries and coordinated actions between members of his delegation during the meetings and talked with delegates from other countries.
The solemn ceremony of opening and closing of the G8 Youth Summit held in the main building at Keio University. Keio University was founded 150 years ago to bring up intellectual political elite, which was to find ways of development, modernization and transformation of Japanese society. In an effort to implement this idea, the University took a leading position in modern Japan. University President welcomed the participants and wished them a productive summit and interesting work. Mr. Yuhiro Anza is sure of the importance of the youth summit, as well as for delegates themselves, and for the future development of peace and cooperation within the Group of Eight. Mr. Anza spoke about the upcoming meeting of rectors of G8 and stressed that the Youth Summit and the academic are important parts of the Big Eight.
At the closing ceremony each president was given a word that was followed by a ceremonial signing of the developed communiqué. The Deputy Director of the G8 Ministry of Japan, Mr. Koichiro Matsumoto began his speech with a joke: «I am very pleased to appear at the G8 straight after the speeches of the heads of the states. That’s the first time when I’ve got such an opportunity». Mr. Matsumoto told us about the preparation of the Heads of the states, which will take place in July, Hokkaido.
To visit Japan without seeing Fujiyama means not visiting Japan at all; that’s what Japanese say. The cultural programme included the visit of the Asakusa Park with the famous Temple of the Sun and the concert of the traditional Japanese music. The Russian delegation enjoyed the beauty at the foot of Mount Fuji in the Hakone National Park, visited a Buddhist Temple with the largest Buddha in the world inside the territory of the Park Nara. Discussing the problems of the Kyoto Protocol, it was impossible to pass by the city in which it was signed and moreover that is the ancient capital of Japan. The representatives of the Russian delegation visited the Orthodox Church in Tokyo.
The keyboards of Japan project participants were still warm when the preparation for G8 Youth Summit 2009 in Italy had already begun. We will develop and make the project better and more interesting together for everyone.