International
G8 leaders agree $50bn Africa aid; Palestinians offered $3bn package
By Finfacts Team
Jul 8, 2005, 15:35

"We speak today in the shadow of terrorism, but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve," UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the summit host, said at the close of the three-day meeting.

"It is in the nature of politics that we do not achieve absolutely everything we hope to achieve, but nonetheless I believe we have made very substantial progress indeed," Blair said at a closing news conference.

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives at Gleneagles, Perthshire, Scotland at the start of the G8 Gleneagles Summit. Pictured being greeted by Peter Lederer MD of Gleneagles Hotel and Chairman of Visit Scotland

Following a last-minute pledge from Japan, Tony Blair won a key victory, announcing that aid to Africa would rise from the current $25 billion annually to $50 billion by 2010.

In a separate joint statement on terrorism, the G8 leaders made a commitment "to new joint efforts" to combat terrorism in light of the London bombings. Among those commitments was cooperating in ways to improve the safety of rail and subway travel.

Blair was not able to get agreement to get all the member countries to commit to increasing foreign aid to an amount equal to 0.7% of national income by 2015. Instead, a summit document said the European Union had agreed to that support but did not mention the United States.

President Bush refused to agree to the 0.7% target. The United States' current aid levelis 0.16% of national income, the smallest percentage of any of the G-8 countries.

Blair listed accomplishments from the summit. However, President Bush's refusal to also support firm targets for reducing so-called greenhouse gas emissions, twarted attempts to get the leaders to agree on significant action on reducing global warming.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with G8 leaders

The G8 leaders also indicated support for new deals on trade, endorsing cancellation of the debts of 18 of the world's poorest nations, pledging universal access to AIDS treatment, renewing their commitment to a peacekeeping force in Africa and noting African leaders promise to move toward democracies that follow the rule of law, Blair said.

"All of this does not change the world tomorrow, it is a beginning, not an end," Blair said, with leaders of the G-8 and five African nations standing behind him. "And none of it today will match the same ghastly impact as the cruelty of terror. But it has a pride and a hope and humanity at its heart that can lift the shadow of terrorism and light the way to a better future."

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo thanked the G8 leaders for focusing on Africa and for "their resolve not to be diverted by these terrorist acts."

Blair said the Palestinian aid package would total up to $3 billion "in the years to come." He said that the assistance was designed "so that two states, Israel and Palestine, two peoples and two religions can live side by side in peace."

Blair said that the plan of action on climate change "will initiate a new dialogue" between the summit countries and leaders from developing economies who also met with them.

View the Summit documents:
Gleneagles Summit 2005 documents