The leaders of the world’s eight richest economies on Saturday piled up pressure on Iran, asking it to swiftly address outstanding issues relating to its nuclear programme and vowed to ensure crude markets are given “full and timely” supplies despite an oil embargo on Tehran.
In its “Camp David Declaration”, the Group of Eight also supported Kofi Annan’s settlement plan for Syria and cautioned North Korea against further provocation, besides pledging steps to mitigate the economic impact of the Afghan transition and saying Greece, now battling a crippling debt crisis, should remain in the Eurozone.
The group’s leaders papered over their deep-seated divisions on how best to tackle the Eurozone crisis, and declared that they wanted debt-stricken Greece to remain within the fold. However, they called on Athens to stick to the terms of a massive EU-IMF cash-for-reforms bailout, now hanging by a thread.
Incidentally, two Indian-Americans — PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi and USAID administrator Raj Shah — were among the few special guests invited by US President
Barack Obama to a G-8 luncheon at Camp David on Saturday. They were invited to take part in a discussion with four African Presidents/PMs invited to the special luncheon. Mr Obama said this was perhaps the first time business leaders attended a G-8 summit.