G7 Meeting Sees Hope, Extends Debt Relief to Haiti

Finance ministers from the world's richest industrialized nations broke with tradition on at least a couple of fronts for their annual meeting that concluded on February 6. For starters, the selection of the remote northern Canadian Nunavut territory for the meeting location is farther removed from easy media access compared to typical conference locales. As reported by Toronto's Globe and Mail, the remoteness was intended to provide a less formal setting that was hoped would foster greater openness and frankness of dialogue. And second, unlike in most previous G7 summits, no formal joint statement was issued following the meeting to summarize discussion, determinations, or commitments.

However, participating leaders who have spoken to the media individually are coming away from the meeting with a sense of optimism and at least one very big piece of very good news: as reported by ABC (Australia) and BBC among others, G7 leaders have agrees to cancel all outstanding foreign debt owed to them by Haiti as an initial commitment to support the rebuilding of the quake devastated Caribbean nation that will be expected to take many years.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is quoted by BBC as congratulating the G7 nations for the shared determination to cancel Haiti's debt:

"It must be right that a nation buried in rubble must not also be buried in debt.The UK has already canceled all debts owed to it by Haiti and I strongly welcome today's G7 commitment to forgive Haiti's remaining multilateral debt. We will work with others to make sure this is delivered."

Reports additionally reflect a shared guarded sense of optimism that steps taken by participating nations to address the global financial crisis are beginning to show signs of stabilization; leaders concur that economic activity is not as vibrant as what any of them would like to see but as Globe and Mail reports, host nation Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty sees promising signals among all seven participating nations that the worst is behind us and that all are currently standing on more solid ground compared to just one year ago.

Photo courtesy of Public Domain  via Wikimedia Commons