(Source: Jiji Press English News Service)
Washington, Nov. 21 (Jiji Press)--A panel of diplomatic experts from Japan, the United States and Europe has called for expanding the Group of Eight framework of major nations to create a new Group of 16 forum that would also include eight emerging and developing nations such as China and India.
The Managing Global Insecurity project team said in a report that the G-16 framework should be established at next year's G-8 summit in Italy.
The panel made the proposal at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to solve a host of political and economic challenges on the globe by the G-8 nations alone.
Among the panel members are former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who now serves as adviser to U.S. President- elect Barack Obama, and John Podesta, cohead of Obama's transition team. Other members include Japan International Cooperation Agency President Sadako Ogata and Javier Solana, high representative for the common foreign and security policy of the European Union.
The group said that if launching the G-16 at the next G-8 summit is difficult, a Group of 13 forum should be created first. The G-13 should hold talks regularly to build consensus regarding policies for such international organizations as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, it said.
The group stressed that the G-16 framework must be launched by 2012 at the latest when the United States is scheduled to chair the G-8 forum.
The G-8 nations are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The G-13 would be made up of the G-8 plus China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico. The G- 13 countries plus Indonesia, Turkey, and either Egypt or Nigeria would comprise the G-16.
Leaders of the G-13 countries held talks in Hokkaido, northern Japan, in July on the fringe of this year's G-8 summit.
The MGI project was launched last year jointly by the Brookings Institution, New York University and Stanford University.END
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