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                         Obama in Germany for G7 Summit

   by Al Pessin

   The leaders of seven major industrialized countries are in Germany for
   their annual summit, with issues as varied as the economy, climate
   change and world crises on their agenda.
   Traditional German music greeted U.S. President Barack Obama as he
   joined summit host Chancellor Angela Merkel for a visit to a local
   village Sunday morning.

   Within a few hours they would be sitting with their counterparts from
   Canada, France, Britain, Italy, Japan and the European Union for
   secluded talks on key world issues.

   ''The president described what he called the "difficult challenges"
   they would be discussing.

   "We're going to discuss our shared future, the global economy that
   creates jobs and opportunity, maintaining a strong and prosperous
   European Union, forging new trade partnerships across the Atlantic,
   standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine, combating threats from
   violent extremism to climate change," he said.

   Chancellor Merkel called the U.S. "our friend and our partner."

   The leaders are expected to agree to continue sanctions on Russia,
   which was a member of this group until it invaded and occupied
   Ukraine's Crimea region last year, and began its support for rebels in
   eastern Ukraine.

   New issues

   They are also expected to discuss several crises in the Middle East,
   and China's new effort to build and expand islands in the Pacific,
   which could be used to control key navigation channels.

   At the Royal United Services Institute in London, Jonathan Eyal says in
   recent decades the G7 has mostly dealt with broad issues, but the
   emergence of the concerns about China and Russia make this summit
   something of a throwback.

   "In a curious way, it's a very old-fashioned agenda.  We tended to
   believe that all future conflicts would be multi-national, global in
   essence.  In fact, the position of two big powers in the world is now
   again the subject of very serious discussion," he said.

   But the impact these leaders can have on any of those issues is
   incremental at best, says International Economy professor Leila Simona
   Talani of London's King's College.  Still, she says the G7 is somewhat
   ironically as important as it has ever been because larger
   organizations, like the Group of Twenty, have not been effective.

   "There was a moment at the beginning of the 2000s that everyone
   believed everyone will have to be part of the decision-making bodies of
   the globe," she said.  "But this, I don't think, is happening.  The
   real conflicts, like the ones in the Middle East, make the role of the
   superpowers more important because obviously these are the only ones
   who can tackle those kind of conflicts."

   But not everyone is happy about that.

   Protesters rally against G7

   Hundreds of protesters have gathered in the area to accuse the G7 of
   being the source of the world's problems.  Police removed several who
   tried to block a road Sunday morning, and others marched across a field
   where they had been allowed to set up camp and tried to get close to
   the summit hotel.

   More than 15,000 German security personnel are keeping the protesters
   at bay and ensuring the leaders are safe as they uphold the G7
   tradition of spending a couple of days largely on their own, discussing
   the world's most pressing issues.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-in-germany-for-g7-summit/2810881.html