Economic Summit Menu Includes a Dash of Politics

British Prime Minister John Major said Thursday that next week’s summit meeting of the major industrialized democracies, although intended as an economic gathering, will have a political dimension as well.

The world leaders at the meeting of the so-called Group of Seven will discuss such questions as Yugoslavia, Iraq, South African reform and the Israeli-Arab dispute as well as financial matters, Major told a news conference.

The three-day meeting beginning Monday will also take up the knotty subject of controlling arms sales to volatile regions such as the Middle East, said Major, who will be host to his fellow leaders from the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Canada.

Major said that controlling arms sales is part of the overall economic summit theme of “building world partnership and strengthening the international order.”

“We simply cannot allow a country like Iraq ever again to build up a huge arsenal of deadly weapons unchecked and in some cases unknown,” he said.

“Our focus will also be on ideas for strengthening the international order so small states can feel safe from aggression from their larger neighbors.”

Although the Soviet Union is not a member of the summit group, Major has invited President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to meet the seven leaders at the conclusion of the summit.

Gorbachev is expected to outline his country’s financial crisis and indicate what sort of Western help he desires. But Major, echoing comments from others in the Group of Seven, confirmed that there will be no cash on the table for Gorbachev, although he promised that the world leaders will listen carefully to Gorbachev’s proposals for economic reform in the Soviet Union.

Among other topics to be discussed in London, Major said, is the protection of the environment, particularly the Brazilian rain forests. He suggested that all seven might agree to attend an environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro next summer.

On the economic side, Major said he thought the summit would support endorsement for counter-inflation policies and a push to revived the stalled talks of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

NEXT STEP

While Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will not attend the formal sessions of the Group of Seven, British Prime Minister John Major said that practical ways of helping Gorbachev and integrating the Soviet economy into the world economy will be considered at those sessions. “I think it is probable that we will discuss whether the Soviet Union should be associated in some way with international financial institutions, perhaps the IMF,” Major said. The seven leaders will end their meetings Wednesday morning, then meet with Gorbachev and attend a dinner in his honor that night.