Abe Leveraging Seat in next G-8 Summit to gain Votes in Japan
Posted by alexfrancis on June 5, 2007
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe left for Europe on Tuesday, June 5th to meet with a number of European leaders and attend the next G-8 Summit to be held on Wednesday in Heiligendamm, Germany on the eastern Baltic coast.
The Group of Eight, or G-8, is a group of advanced industrialized democracies composed of the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Canada, Italy, and Russia.
The most pressing issues at the summit in Heiligendamm are expected to be Global Warming and Africa.
However, Abe is bringing his own agenda to the meeting that has the bias of his desire to gain popularity in Japan and thus votes in the coming House of Councillors election next month.
“The G-8 is a good opportunity, so we hope to send out a strong message toward resolving the abduction issue to North Korea and to the international community,” he said.
In reality, Abe’s popularity has fallen recently due to the recent suicide of a cabinet minister. For this reason, Abe needs to bring results back to Japan that will revive their support. Abe plans to bring up North Korean nuclear, missile and abduction issues at the G-8 Summit in Germany, seeking reconfirmation of support from his G-8 counterparts. Also, Abe will have to demonstrate his democratic leadership skills in advocating for a new international framework to fight global warming beyond the 2012 time frame set by the Kyoto Protocol. By successfully gaining support for domestic Japanese interests, Abe can have confidence in the coming Japanese elections.
Yet in reality, it is not just Abe who will arrive at the G-8 Summit with his own agenda; leaders from every country will have their own domestic ambitions that will influence the direction of collaborative projects forged by the Group Eight countries. Nevertheless, the democratic nature of the G-8 countries is what allows for each leader to voice their opinion and domestic needs. Global efforts are thus shaped from the bottom up by numerous leaders collaborating together, rather than just a single hegemonic state.
Source: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070605/kyodo/d8pic1100.html
