Fact Sheet: Accomplishments at the G-8 Summit: Day One

"...[T]he United States has adopted a new policy, a forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East. This strategy requires the same persistence and energy and idealism we have shown before. And it will yield the same results. As in Europe, as in Asia, as in every region of the world, the advance of freedom leads to peace."

President George W. Bush

November 6, 2003

Washington, D.C.

Presidential Action

President Bush met with the G-8 Leaders at Sea Island, Georgia, to advance freedom by strengthening international cooperation to make the world both safer and better. Today, President Bush led the G-8 in:

• Pledging united support for the Iraqi people and the new Iraqi Interim Government, including support for elections, reconstruction, and debt reduction;
• Launching a historic Partnership with the Broader Middle East to support democratic, social, and economic reforms;
• Taking new action against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including expanding the Proliferation Security Initiative, strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency, and refraining from new transfers of uranium enrichment and reprocessing technology;
• Strengthening Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, with a focus on the security of international travel;
• Adopting an Action Plan focused on Applying the Power of Entrepreneurship to the Eradication of Poverty by facilitating global remittances, microfinance, and access to financing for housing and clean water; and
• Encouraging increased action to promote global economic growth and directing trade ministers to put the WTO's Doha global trade negotiations back on track for a successful conclusion.

Outreach: The G-8 Leaders met today with Leaders of Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen, and the new President of Iraq to discuss how to support efforts in the broader Middle East to pursue democracy, freedom, and prosperity.

Iraq: The G-8 Leaders welcomed the unanimous approval of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1546, and noted the importance of the Multinational Force for Iraq succeeding in it mission. The G-8 Leaders pledged to:

• Stand together united in their support for the Iraqi people and the new Iraqi Interim Government;
• Provide support for elections for the Transitional National Assembly no later than January 2005;
• Meet before the next donors conference to identify how each of the G-8 countries can contribute to reconstruction; and
• Work together to achieve debt reduction for Iraq in 2004.

Broader Middle East Initiative: The G-8 Leaders committed to a historic "Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa" to support political, social, and economic reform in the region. This Partnership builds on President Bush's "forward strategy of freedom," which he announced last November. Specifically, the G-8 committed to:

• Establish a Forum for the Future, which will root the new Partnership in a regular dialogue on reform, bringing together in one forum G-8 and regional foreign, economic, and other ministers, with business and civil society leaders participating in parallel dialogues. The first meeting of the Forum for the Future will be held in the fall of 2004.
• Adopt a Plan of Support for Reform that:
  • Offers assistance through new initiatives on democratization, literacy, entrepreneurship training, microfinance, and small business financing; and
  • "Intensifies and expands" existing programs to promote democracy, education, and social reform, and to create jobs and generate economic growth.

New Action Against Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD): President Bush outlined on February 11, 2004 an ambitious global nonproliferation agenda, stating: "There is consensus among nations that proliferation cannot be tolerated. Yet this consensus means little unless it is translated into action." The G-8 agreed today to advance this agenda by committing to:

• Expand the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which now includes all G-8 countries, to disrupt and dismantle proliferation networks;
• Refrain for one year from initiating new transfers of uranium enrichment and reprocessing technology to additional states, aiming to implement permanent controls before the 2005 G-8 Summit to keep these materials out of the hands of outlaw states seeking nuclear weapons;
• Promote universal adherence to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Additional Protocol on safeguards and make the Additional Protocol a condition of supply of nuclear technology;
• Strengthen the IAEA, including through creation of a special committee that will focus intensively on safeguards and verification; and
• Expand the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, by welcoming new donors and using the Global Partnership to coordinate nonproliferation projects in Libya, Iraq, and other countries.

The G-8 Leaders urged all states to implement recently passed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1540, which calls on countries to criminalize proliferation.

The G-8 Leaders also welcomed Libya's strategic decision to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programs, and called for the complete, verifiable, and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear programs. The G-8 were united that Iran must comply fully with its Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and IAEA obligations.

Strengthening Global Counterterrorism Cooperation: President Bush and the G-8 Leaders launched the Secure and Facilitated International Travel Initiative (SAFTI) to enhance international counterterrorism cooperation by strengthening security of international travel. The SAFTI action plan commits the G-8 to 28 action items, including:

• Establishing a 24-hour aviation point-of-contact network for addressing imminent threats;
• Sharing information on suspect travelers, including by facilitating real-time sharing of information on lost and stolen passports;
• Expanding research and collaboration on biometric technology for next-generation passenger control; and
• Accelerate efforts to destroy excess and/or obsolete shoulder-launched missiles (so called Man Portable Air-Defense Systems, or MANPADS) and restrict transfers of MANPADS production technology.

Private Sector-Led Growth: President Bush secured G-8 support for an innovative Action Plan on Applying the Power of Entrepreneurship to the Eradication of Poverty. President Bush has emphasized promoting economic freedom and entrepreneurship as the drivers of job creation and poverty reduction. The recent U.N. report, "Unleashing Entrepreneurship: Making Business Work for the Poor," underscores the importance of private sector-led development in poverty alleviation. Today, the G-8 committed to assist developing countries in:

• Facilitating and lowering the cost of the $100 billion in annual remittance flows;
• Expanding access to microfinance for entrepreneurs;
• Improving business and investment climates; and
• Expanding access to housing and clean water by developing mortgage markets and municipal bond
• markets.

Global Economy and Trade: President Bush highlighted U.S. leadership in boosting the global economy, which is expected to grow faster in 2004-2005 than in any two-year period since the late 1970's. G-8 Leaders agreed it was important to take advantage of the strong global economic environment to implement further reforms to accelerate growth in their countries.

President Bush and the other G-8 Leaders agreed that we face a moment of strategic economic opportunity: by combining the upturn in global growth with a worldwide reduction in trade barriers, we can deepen, broaden, and extend the current economic expansion. Thus, the G-8 Leaders committed to work toward an ambitious outcome in the core market areas of agriculture, goods, and services in the WTO Doha Development Agenda negotiations, and directed their trade ministers, and called on all WTO members, to finalize framework agreements by July to put the negotiations back on track to a successful conclusion.