The G8 Research Group has assigned the Italian Presidency's efforts to achieve its objectives at the 2009 L’Aquila G8 Summit an overall score of 0.59. This is well below the score of 0.68 assigned last year to the 2008 Hokkaido-Toyako Summit.

The G8 Research has released its 2009 L’Aquila G8 Summit Issue Area Assessment Report. This report has been prepared per the methodology outlined in the preface. The overall score for the L’Aquila G8 Summit 0.59. The individual issue area and objective scores are available in the table of contents and in the body of this report.

The G8 Research has released its 2009 L’Aquila G8 Summit Country Assessment Report.
This report has been prepared per the methodology outlined in the preface.

The United States received the highest overall score at L’Aquila with an aggregate score of 0.82, well above its average aggregated score of 0.77. Italy, which has the lowest historical average, received the second highest score at 0.72. Both countries scored higher than the average aggregated country score of 0.63.

At the 2009 L’Aquila Summit, the G8 had extensive discussions on the issue of piracy, agreeing that fighting piracy requires both near-term countermeasures and longer-term structural interventions to target its root causes. To this end, the leaders committed to reinforcing international counter-piracy patrolling missions, while also recognizing that a sustainable solution to piracy also requires strengthening basic security and rule of law in Somalia.

At the 2009 L’Aquila Summit, the G8 reiterated its full support for the two-state solution and “affirmed that Arab-Israeli peace, the state of Israel living in peace and security and the establishment of a state of Palestine…is in the fundamental interest of the international community.” The leaders also called on Israel and Palestine to fulfill their obligations under the Roadmap for Peace, specifically “a freeze in settlement activity, including ‘natural growth.’” However, despite discussions on developing infrastructure and fostering economic activities in the future Palestinian State, the

At the 2009 L’Aquila Summit, the G8’s discussions on Iran focused on its nuclear program. However, post-election violence was also a topic of discussion. While stressing their respect for the sovereignty of Iran, they condemned the interference with media, unjustified detentions of journalists, and arrests of foreign nationals that took place during the post-election violence.

At the 2009 L’Aquila Summit, the G8 reaffirmed their commitment to promoting stability and development in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, explicitly identifying strengthened regional cooperation as an essential pillar of the international strategy for stabilizing the region. With regard to Afghanistan, the G8 leaders focused on governance issues, calling for credible elections in August and reiterating their commitment to provide technical, logistical, financial and security assistance.

At the 2009 L’Aquila Summit, G8 members can be expected to commit to bolster stabilization operations and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, but also to use the summit as a forum to discuss Iran’s future, the Middle East Peace Process and piracy in Somalia, albeit on the sidelines of the main summit discussions.

OBJECTIVE 1: The Afghanistan-Pakistan (“AfPak”) War