Armitage: Dismissive

Washington, July 20: India’s hopes of joining the Group of Eight (G-8) appear to have died a premature death even before the idea could catch on, thanks to lack of any enthusiasm in Washington for New Delhi’s entry into the club of rich industrial nations.

The issue was raised by the United Progressive Alliance government’s interlocutors with US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage during his recent visit to New Delhi, according to Armitage’s account of his discussions in South Block, distributed here by the state department.

“I know of no formal proposal for such a thing..., India is certainly a country which has taken its place on the world stage and is to be much, I think, admired for many of the stances she has taken. But the question of the expansion of G-8 is not one that, as far as I know, has ever been discussed in a major way,” Armitage said.

The deputy secretary’s response when Indians brought up the subject bordered on the sarcastic and he was dismissive.

“When one of my interlocutors said, ‘What’s with the G-8 expansion?’ and I asked him ‘What’s up with that?’,” Armitage replied when he was asked about the subject at his press conference in New Delhi.

When he was pressed on the question, Armitage made it clear that G-8 membership for India was a long way off, if at all, much like the permanent membership of the UN Security Council, which has been hanging fire for well over a decade.

“I would want to hear what the expansion is too — is it a G-8 to G-10? Or G-8 to G-20? I think I cannot answer the question in the absence of knowing exactly what the proposal is.”

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had floated the idea of including India and China into the club of rich at the G-8 summit in Georgia, US, in June.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said then that there was a case for bringing in the two countries into G-8 while Canada’s new Prime Minister Paul Martin suggested an alternative: an expanded G-20 summit, in addition to the annual G-8 meeting.

Martin said his idea was receiving wide support and predicted that a G-20 could meet even as early as next year.

Blair went so far as to say in Georgia that “we have already begun the process of outreach and I am sure that will continue”.

But Armitage’s statement, which is being interpreted here as part of the Bush administration’s “carrot and stick” policy towards New Delhi, has poured cold water on the prospect of any G-8 expansion, at least in the short run.

The group’s meetings began in 1975 as G-6, but Canada and Russia joined later to make it G-8.