G-8 Leaders Confident On
Growth Potential of Global Economy

Pledge to push WTO talks, structural reforms and development

President George W. Bush, right, talks to French President Jacques Chirac, center, and Russian President Vladimir Putin before a working session of the G8 summit June 2. (©AP/WWP)Enlargement

By Andrzej Zwaniecki
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Evian, France -- Leaders of the major industrialized countries and Russia have expressed confidence in the growth potential of their economies, renewing their commitments to trade liberalization and structural reforms in order to tap this potential.

"Major downside risks have receded and the conditions for a recovery are in place," the heads of state of the Group of Eight (G-8) countries said June 3 in a summary statement issued by France at the conclusion of the G-8 summit in Evian, France. Complete Text

G-8 Endorses Iraq Reconstruction,
Mideast Peace Efforts

By Wendy Ross
Washington File Staff Correspondent

Evian, France -- "The time has now come to build peace and reconstruct Iraq," the leaders of the Group of Eight (G-8) said in a statement at the end of their June 1-3 summit on the shores of Lake Geneva.

"Our shared objective is a fully sovereign, stable and democratic Iraq, at peace with its neighbors and firmly on the road to progress," the statement said, showing a willingness to put behind them the divisions among some preceding the war in Iraq. Complete Text

More G-8 Texts