2007 G8 Summit Magazine - (Page 8) Welcome to the G8! Following 1978, 1985, 1992 and most recently 1999, Germany is delighted to once again play host to this major international forum. The G8 Summit will take place at the beginning of June 2007 in the Baltic coastal resort of Heiligendamm. The international community is faced with a number of new and fundamental questions: how can industrialized states and other countries further develop in a climate of fair competition? How can we ensure that people in developing countries enjoy better prospects? How can we sustainably preserve the natural resources of our planet? In short: we need to join together and discuss those economic topics which affect the whole world. As host, Germany will focus intensively on the pressing issues of the world economic order. At the same time, we wish to advance dialogue with Africa. The G8 has already achieved a great deal in working with this major continent. We must not relent in our efforts to ensure that people in Africa have real prospects for growth, development and participation. In the past, and most recently under the Russian Presidency, the G8 has put forward ideas and solutions which have earned great recognition throughout the world. The last G8 Summit in St. Petersburg brought home to me just how much tangible progress can be made when Heads of State and Government meet and discuss face to face. These Summits provide a superb opportunity to coordinate political objectives and actions directly, and thus more closely. I also welcome the opportunities that the G8 Presidency brings to Germany, and the region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in particular. A wider international audience will come to appreciate the beauty of its countryside and the hospitality of its people. I am aware that G8 meetings have also met with criticism. And as long as this criticism is voiced peacefully, it forms part of people’s right to freedom of expression – a fundamental societal right to which the G8 is committed. Angela Merkel Federal Chancellor of Germany | -8-
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