First-timer Wins Moral Victory on the Mountain

Gordon Brown emerged from three days and nights in a mountaintop hotel with the G8 leaders with his reputation on the international stage enhanced.

Apart from the unseasonable clouds and fog shrouding the Japanese hotel, it must have been a bewildering event for a first-time G8 summiteer like Brown. The G8 event is no longer just the big western industrialized countries but also invites world leaders from Africa, India, China and other major economies.

It has become the Glastonbury of diplomacy. Everyone wants to turn up, even if they only get a brief moment live on stage. The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, traveled 17 hours from Canberra, refueling twice on the way, to make a six-minute contribution. If there was a measurement of political impact by carbon emissions, Rudd would probably be in some kind of green sin bin.

Brown can be pleased with the broad outcomes.

His low domestic poll ratings would have hardly made him a pariah, since most G8 leaders are also slumping in the polls because of the credit and resources crunch.

He did not have the elder statesman status of Tony Blair, his predecessor's networking abilities, or his special "in" with George Bush. But he has a ferocious knowledge and experience to bring to bear on many issues on the summit's agenda, including the declining world economy, rocketing oil prices, the need for new financial institutions, climate change funds, and aid to Africa. There will not have been a better-briefed leader around the summit table.

Yet it was on a purely diplomatic, even moral, issue, that he scored. The G8's tough statement on Zimbabwe, backing a form of financial sanctions and the idea of a special UN envoy to supplement the unimpressive work of Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, is a personal victory for Brown.

However, it looks as if he made little progress with the Russians, even if, like Bush, he regards Dmitry Medvedev as a smart guy.

On issues like BP, the British Council and the murder of Alexander Litvinenko - what the Russians described as "the sharp corners in our relationship" - there was no agreement.

Brown can be pleased that Bush has moved to the extent that America is willing to set a target for a 50% cut in carbon emissions by 2050.

But huge issues remain to be resolved, including the date from which the cuts should be measured, whether binding interim targets can be agreed, what contributions will be expected from the developed and developing countries, and how much money will be needed to persuade the developing countries that they must make a contribution.

On Africa, Brown made little progress, but he stopped the G8 from backsliding on development aid.

The action on Africa now shifts to a meeting of the UN in New York in September, to discuss how the world is to achieve the eight millennium development goals on world poverty, health and education, which 189 UN members agreed to try to achieve by 2015.

That is the great quality of summits. There is always another to which everything can be deferred.