U.S. & ALLIES WILL NOT ATTEND G-8 SUMMIT IN SOCHI, RUSSIA

FROM:  THE WHITE HOUSE 

The Hague Declaration

1. We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission met in The Hague to reaffirm our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.

2. International law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state’s territory through coercion or force.  To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built.  We condemn the illegal referendum held in Crimea in violation of Ukraine’s constitution.  We also strongly condemn Russia’s illegal attempt to annex Crimea in contravention of international law and specific international obligations.  We do not recognize either. 

3. Today, we reaffirm that Russia’s actions will have significant consequences.  This clear violation of international law is a serious challenge to the rule of law around the world and should be a concern for all nations.  In response to Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to demonstrate our determination to respond to these illegal actions, individually and collectively we have imposed a variety of sanctions against Russia and those individuals and entities responsible.  We remain ready to intensify actions including coordinated sectoral sanctions that will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy, if Russia continues to escalate this situation. 

4. We remind Russia of its international obligations, and its responsibilities including those for the world economy.  Russia has a clear choice to make.  Diplomatic avenues to de-escalate the situation remain open, and we encourage the Russian Government to take them.  Russia must respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, begin discussions with the Government of Ukraine, and avail itself of offers of international mediation and monitoring to address any legitimate concerns.

5.  The Russian Federation’s support for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine is a step in the right direction.  We look forward to the mission’s early deployment, in order to facilitate the dialogue on the ground, reduce tensions and promote normalization of the situation, and we call on all parties to ensure that Special Monitoring Mission members have safe and secure access throughout Ukraine to fulfill their mandate.

6.  This Group came together because of shared beliefs and shared responsibilities.  Russia’s actions in recent weeks are not consistent with them.  Under these circumstances, we will not participate in the planned Sochi Summit.  We will suspend our participation in the G-8 until Russia changes course and the environment comes back to where the G-8 is able to have a meaningful discussion and will meet again in G-7 format at the same time as planned, in June 2014, in Brussels, to discuss the broad agenda we have together.  We have also advised our Foreign Ministers not to attend the April meeting in Moscow.  In addition, we have decided that G-7 Energy Ministers will meet to discuss ways to strengthen our collective energy security.

7.  At the same time, we stand firm in our support for the people of Ukraine who seek to restore unity, democracy, political stability, and economic prosperity to their country.   We commend the Ukrainian government’s ambitious reform agenda and will support its implementation as Ukraine seeks to start a new chapter in its history, grounded on a broad-based constitutional reform, free and fair presidential elections in May, promotion of human rights and respect of national minorities.

8. The International Monetary Fund has a central role leading the international effort to support Ukrainian reform, lessening Ukraine's economic vulnerabilities, and better integrating the country as a market economy in the multilateral system.  We strongly support the IMF's work with the Ukrainian authorities and urge them to reach a rapid conclusion.  IMF support will be critical in unlocking additional assistance from the World Bank, other international financial institutions, the EU, and bilateral sources.  We remain united in our commitment to provide strong financial backing to Ukraine, to co-ordinate our technical assistance, and to provide assistance in other areas, including measures to enhance trade and strengthen energy security.

G8 LEADER'S STATEMENT ON THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

Credit:  Wikimedia.  
FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Statement by G8 Leaders on the Global Economy
May 19, 2012
Our imperative is to promote growth and jobs.
The global economic recovery shows signs of promise, but significant headwinds persist.
Against this background, we commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses, recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of us.

We welcome the ongoing discussion in Europe on how to generate growth, while maintaining a firm commitment to implement fiscal consolidation to be assessed on a structural basis. We agree on the importance of a strong and cohesive Eurozone for global stability and recovery, and we affirm our interest in Greece remaining in the Eurozone while respecting its commitments. We all have an interest in the success of specific measures to strengthen the resilience of the Eurozone and growth in Europe. We support Euro Area Leaders’ resolve to address the strains in the Eurozone in a credible and timely manner and in a manner that fosters confidence, stability and growth.

We agree that all of our governments need to take actions to boost confidence and nurture recovery including reforms to raise productivity, growth and demand within a sustainable, credible and non-inflationary macroeconomic framework. We commit to fiscal responsibility and, in this context, we support sound and sustainable fiscal consolidation policies that take into account countries’ evolving economic conditions and underpin confidence and economic recovery.

To raise productivity and growth potential in our economies, we support structural reforms, and investments in education and in modern infrastructure, as appropriate. Investment initiatives can be financed using a range of mechanisms, including leveraging the private sector. Sound financial measures, to which we are committed, should build stronger systems over time while not choking off near-term credit growth. We commit to promote investment to underpin demand, including support for small businesses and public-private partnerships.

Robust international trade, investment and market integration are key drivers of strong sustainable and balanced growth. We underscore the importance of open markets and a fair, strong, rules-based trading system. We will honor our commitment to refrain from protectionist measures, protect investments and pursue bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral efforts, consistent with and supportive of the WTO framework, to reduce barriers to trade and investment and maintain open markets. We call on the broader international community to do likewise. Recognizing that unnecessary differences and overly burdensome regulatory standards serve as significant barriers to trade, we support efforts towards regulatory coherence and better alignment of standards to further promote trade and growth.

Given the importance of intellectual property rights (IPR) to stimulating job and economic growth, we affirm the significance of high standards for IPR protection and enforcement, including through international legal instruments and mutual assistance agreements, as well as through government procurement processes, private-sector voluntary codes of best practices, and enhanced customs cooperation, while promoting the free flow of information. To protect public health and consumer safety, we also commit to exchange information on rogue internet pharmacy sites in accordance with national law and share best practices on combating counterfeit medical products.

G-8 WORKS ON FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION

Photo:  Corn Field.  Credit:  Wikimedia
FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
G8 Action on Food Security and Nutrition
Fact Sheet
Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
May 18, 2012
At the Camp David Summit, G8 and African leaders will commit to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, the next phase of our shared commitment to achieving global food security. In partnership with Africa’s people and leaders, our goals are to increase responsible domestic and foreign private investments in African agriculture, take innovations that can enhance agricultural productivity to scale, and reduce the risk borne by vulnerable economies and communities. We recognize and will act upon the critical role played by smallholder farmers, especially women, in transforming agriculture and building thriving economies.

The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is a shared commitment to achieve sustained and inclusive agricultural growth and raise 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years by aligning the commitments of Africa’s leadership to drive effective country plans and policies for food security; the commitments of private sector partners to increase investments where the conditions are right; and the commitments of the G8 to expand Africa’s potential for rapid and sustainable agricultural growth. We welcome the support of the World Bank and African Development Bank, and of the United Nation’s World Food Program, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Food and Agriculture Organization for the New Alliance. We also welcome the successful conclusion of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security and support the broad-based consultation process and pilot use of the Principles of Responsible Agricultural Investment.

The New Alliance Will Build on and Help Realize the Promise of L’Aquila
Since the L’Aquila Summit, where we committed to “act with the scale and urgency needed to achieve sustainable global food security,” we have increased our bilateral and multilateral investments in food security and changed the way we do business, consistent with core principles of aid effectiveness. Based on the findings of the 2012 G8 Accountability Report and consistent with the Rome Principles on Sustainable Global Food Security, the G8 will agree to:
Promptly fulfill outstanding L’Aquila financial pledges and seek to maintain strong support to address current and future global food security challenges, including through bilateral and multilateral assistance;
Ensure that our assistance is directly aligned behind country plans;
Strengthen the coordination of G8 strategies, assistance and programs in-country and with partner countries to increase efficiencies, reduce transaction burdens, and eliminate redundancies and gaps.

The New Alliance will be rooted in partnership
To accelerate national progress in African partner countries, the G8 will launch New Alliance Cooperation Frameworks that align with priority activities within each partner’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) national investment plan and include predictable funding commitments, specific policy actions, and statements of intent from the private sector.

The G8 will partner with the African Union, New Partnership for Africa's Development and CAADP to implement the New Alliance, and leverage in particular the Grow Africa Partnership, in order to ensure our efforts build on African ownership, yield significant outcomes, and can be replicated across Africa. The G8 will work together to advance the objectives of the New Alliance and G-8 members will support its individual elements on a complementary basis.

To mobilize private capital for food security, the New Alliance will:
Support the preparation and financing of bankable agricultural infrastructure projects, through multilateral initiatives including the development of a new Fast Track Facility for Agriculture Infrastructure.
Support the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), with the goal of securing commitments of $1.2 billion over three years from existing and new donors, scaling up and strengthening the operations of its public and private sector windows and support other mechanisms that improve country ownership and align behind CAADP national investment plans.
Report on the progress of G-8 development finance institutions in catalyzing additional private investment in African agriculture and increasing the range of financing options and innovative risk mitigation tools available to smallholder farmers and medium-sized agribusinesses.
Call on the World Bank, in collaboration with other relevant partners, to develop options for generating a Doing Business in Agriculture Index.
Announce the signing of Letters of Intent from over 45 local and multinational companies to invest over $3 billion across the agricultural value chain in Grow Africa countries, and the signing by over 60 companies of the Private Sector Declaration of Support for African Agricultural Development outlining their commitment to support African agriculture and public-private partnerships in a responsible manner.

To take innovation to scale, the New Alliance will:
Determine 10-year targets in partner countries for sustainable agricultural yield improvements, adoption of improved production technologies, including improved seed varieties, as well as post-harvest management practices as part of a value-chain approach, and measures to ensure ecological sustainability and safeguard agro-biodiversity.
Launch a Technology Platform with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa and other partners in consultation with the Tropical Agriculture Platform and the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) initiative that will assess the availability of improved technologies for food commodities critical to achieve sustainable yield, resilience, and nutrition impacts, identify current constraints to adoption, and create a roadmap to accelerate adoption of technologies.
Launch the Scaling Seeds and Other Technologies Partnership, housed at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa to strengthen the seed sector and promote the commercialization, distribution and adoption of key technologies improved seed varieties, and other technologies prioritized by the Technology Platform to meet established goals in partner countries.
Share relevant agricultural data available from G8 countries with African partners and convene an international conference on Open Data for Agriculture, to develop options for the establishment of a global platform to make reliable agricultural and related information available to African farmers, researchers and policymakers, taking into account existing agricultural data systems.
Launch an information and communications technology innovation challenge on extension services at the African Union Summit in July 2012.
Explore opportunities for applying the non-profit model licensing approach that could expand African access to food and nutritional technologies developed by national research institutions.

To reduce and manage risk, the New Alliance will:
Support the Platform for Agricultural Risk Management (PARM) to complete national agricultural risk assessment strategies, to be conducted by the World Bank and other international institutions in close partnership with New Alliance countries, with the mandate of identifying key risks to food and nutrition security and agricultural development and recommending options for managing these risks.
Create a global action network to accelerate the availability and adoption of agricultural index insurance, in order to mitigate risks to farmers, especially smallholder and women farmers, and increase income and nutritional security. This network will pool data and findings; identify constraints; support regional training and capacity-building; and accelerate the development of instruments appropriate for smallholders and pastoralists.
Recognize the need for Africa-based sovereign risk management instruments, recognizing the progress by the African Union and its member governments toward creating the African Risk Capacity, a regional risk-pooling facility for drought management.

To improve nutritional outcomes and reduce child stunting, the G8 will:
Actively support the Scaling Up Nutrition movement and welcome the commitment of African partners to improve the nutritional well-being of their populations, especially during the critical 1,000 days window from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday. We pledge that the G8 members will maintain robust programs to further reduce child stunting.
Commit to improve tracking and disbursements for nutrition across sectors and ensure coordination of nutrition activities across sectors.
Support the accelerated release, adoption and consumption of bio-fortified crop varieties, crop diversification, and related technologies to improve the nutritional quality of food in Africa.
Develop a nutrition policy research agenda and support the efforts of African institutions, civil society and private sector partners to establish regional nutritional learning centers.

To ensure accountability for results, the New Alliance will:
Convene a Leadership Council to drive and track implementation, which will report to the G8 and African Union on progress towards achieving the commitments under the New Alliance, including commitments made by the private sector.
Report to the 2013 G8 Summit on the implementation of the New Alliance, including the actions of the private sector, in collaboration with the African Union.

U.S. OFFICIAL MAKES REMARKS ON EAST ASIA BEFORE TRIP

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks Before Departing for Japan, South Korea, India, and Singapore
Remarks Kurt M. Campbell
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Dulles Airport
Washington, DC
April 14, 2012
ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL: First of all, let me apologize for having you have to come out on a lovely Saturday like today. I’m leaving this morning for Japan, South Korea, India, and Singapore for regular consultations on a whole range of issues. In Japan, we will be talking about force posture issues. We will be discussing developments on Okinawa. We will be discussing regional dynamics and upcoming high-level diplomacy. In South Korea, we will review developments on the Peninsula and a variety of other efforts that the United States and South Korea are principally engaged in.

Part of the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific region is a deeper dialogue with India and encouraging India’s “Look East” strategy and so we will be talking about specific initiatives that we will be taking with Delhi to support that effort as part of our Asia-Pacific consultations with them. In Singapore, we will be talking about the upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum and various multilateral issues with respect to ASEAN and U.S.-Singapore bilateral relations.

Obviously a key issue of discussion during this trip will be recent developments with regard to North Korea. I think you will have seen through the President’s statement from the White House, the Susan Rice statement yesterday at the United Nations, the G8 statement and others a swift and sure response from the international community on the recent North Korea provocations. There is a very strong determination among international partners in the Asia-Pacific region to send a very clear message to discourage further provocations from North Korea. I’m very much looking forward to consulting closely with our partners and allies in the region about the way forward. I’m happy to take just a couple of questions before I go.

QUESTION: Is the Leap Day agreement completely annulled or is that something that you hope to work on?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL: I think Ben Rhodes explained clearly yesterday that it’s impossible to imagine under the current circumstances that we would move forward on that.

QUESTION: Japan seeks a resolution at the UN. Do you think the U.S. can work on that with Japan?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL: First of all, Susan Rice is in charge of our diplomacy at the United Nations. We are in very close consultations both bilaterally and up in the UN in a multilateral dialogue with Japan on the way forward. I think Ambassador Rice really was very clear yesterday about where we stand in the diplomacy. I think the partnership with Japan on this issue has been very close. Yes, one last question.

QUESTION: Will you discuss additional steps, such as tougher sanctions, with your counterpart?

ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL: I think Ambassador Rice was clear at this juncture we’re not going to discuss specifics but we will be discussing with our partners in Asia on possible steps and areas of coordination that we will take going forward. Ok. Thank you all.

G-8 FOREIGN MINISTERS CONDEMN NORTH KOREAN MISSILE LAUNCH

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
G8 Foreign Ministers Statement
Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC
April 12, 2012
Following is the text of a statement released on behalf of the G8 Foreign Ministers:
Begin text:
We, the G-8 Foreign Ministers, condemn the launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which is a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1695, 1718, and 1874. Sharing the view that the launch undermines regional peace and stability, we call on the DPRK to abstain from further launches using ballistic missile technology or other actions which aggravate the situation on the Korean Peninsula. We are ready to consider, with others, taking measures responding to all activities of the DPRK that violate UN Security Council Resolutions, and calling for appropriate response by the United Nations Security Council. We urge the DPRK to meet its international commitments including those under the 2005 Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks; comply with its obligations under all relevant UN Security Council resolutions, in particular by abandoning all its nuclear weapons and its existing nuclear and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner; cease its uranium enrichment activities, which violate UN Security Council Resolutions 1718 and 1874; and take concrete and irreversible steps toward denuclearization.

SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON ADDRESSES G-8 MEETING REGARDING SYRIA

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks at the G-8 Plenary Session
Remarks Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State Blair House
Washington, DC
April 11, 2012

Well, once again, welcome to the historic Blair House here in Washington. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to discuss in person the many global issues that require joint leadership from the G-8 nations. The events of this past year, even of just this past week, affirm the continued need for comprehensive international cooperation, and the G-8 is an essential forum for that.

We are alarmed for the ongoing violence in Syria, and we are concerned about the problems facing Special Envoy Kofi Annan as he attempts to bring about a ceasefire and the end to violence. We are very watchful of this. This will be on our agenda later this afternoon. We will look for ways that we can, together, try to bring about a peaceful resolution of the current situation and a political transition for the sake of the Syrian people.

We also look forward to the beginning of the next round of P-5+1 talks in Turkey. These talks are an opportunity for Iran to address seriously the international community’s concerns about its nuclear program. And we believe there is still time for diplomacy, but it is urgent that the Iranians come to the table to establish an environment conducive to achieving concrete results through a sustained process.

And further to the east, North Korea is readying a long-range ballistic missile launch over the East China Sea. It comes just weeks after North Korea agreed to a moratorium on missile testing; it violates multiple UN Security Council resolutions. I think we all share a strong interest in stability on the Korean Peninsula, and we will be discussing how best to achieve that as well.

Earlier today, our Quartet colleagues – which includes the United Nations, represented by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon; the European Union, represented by High Representative Cathy Ashton; the Russian Federation, represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; and the United States, represented by myself and our special envoys – met to review the situation in the Middle East. Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh briefed on Jordan’s recent engagement. The Quartet underscored its support for Jordan’s positive efforts. We remain committed to the goals that we outlined in New York last September. We agreed on the importance of continued financial international support for the Palestinian Authority, including the need for $1.1 billion in immediate assistance.

And finally, we have begun discussing some of the transnational issues – terrorism, piracy, food security – that affect so many millions of people throughout the world. We are also going to be discussing our shared framework to support the democratic transitions and promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth through the Deauville Partnership in the Middle East and North Africa.

So there’s a lot for us to discuss, and we have a full agenda ahead of us in preparation for the leaders meeting at Camp David next month. So again, I welcome my colleagues and look forward to our work together. Thank you all.