During the weekend, meetings were held at Moscow for the first time since Gleneagles last year, hoping to further the achievements reached at G8. These achievements included the decision to cancel debts owed to the IMF, World Bank and African Development Bank of 18 of the world’s poorest countries.
However the communiqué issued on Saturday, which stated solely that it would encourage the International Development Association (IDA) and the African Development Fund (AfDf) to act urgently in completing the final steps of implementation, remained uncommitted to achieving real progress in regard to international debt relief.
Jubilee Debt Campaign believe there was “little sign” shown at the meeting that Finance Ministers want to see an end to the debt crisis in the world’s poorest countries.
Stephen Rand, Co-Chairman of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said it would take specific action at the World Bank to solve the debt crisis and warned: “The unfinished business is still unfinished.”Mr Rand also suggested that events had possibly been overlooked by the Russian energy debate which has consumed the Moscow talks.
Christian organisations like Christian Aid state that they “welcome the promise by G8 leaders,” but are determined to “keep up the pressure on the G8 leaders to ensure that their promise is turned into reality,” according to their website.
Last week US Treasury Under Secretary Tim Adams pleaded for the World Bank to move faster and said: “We strongly urge the Bank to move as quickly as possible to get this done.” Despite the urge, the Moscow talks have delivered little.
In January Gordon Brown had written in The Guardian explaining how he wished to propose a post-Gleneagles agenda with Finance Ministers in Moscow. He stressed that in order to fulfil the G8 summit, Britain wanted to see full debt relief for 67 of the world’s poorest countries, not just 38. It was hoped in this conference that in Moscow, the final movement of cancelling the debts of the earlier 18 countries could finally be carried out.
