G-8: PM to meet presidents of Nigeria, China

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is camping in Berlin's Hotel Adlon Kempinski. He will soon meet the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo before meeting Chinese President Hu Jintao.

During the remainder of this year, Dr Singh is expected to focus on African countries as the world attention turns to the mineral- and resource-rich continent. Dr Singh is expected to visit Senegal this year. 

Nigeria is going through a rough patch of violence, and a law and order crisis prevails. More than a dozen Indians have been kidnapped recently.

In his meeting with Obasanjo, Dr Singh will take up the issue of India's relations with the African Union and also discuss bilateral relations.

Germany is under siege as the G-8 meeting is in progress. According to local newspaper estimates, more than $100 million has been spent on countering protests against the policies of G-8 countries.

More than 16,000 police officers are armed as if they are to fight an enemy army. Weapons, dogs and fences have encircled the meeting place in the Baltic sea resort at the G-8 Outreach Summit in Heiligendamm.

Road and air traffic is completely blocked and Germany looks like a police state.

Green activists have been facing tough challenges since the last one week.

The irony is that leaders of rich countries are scared to face activists on the roads as their unsustainable development policies have increased the distance between the poor and rich nations of the world.

Besides the security versus green activists battle, another battle catching everyone's attention clearly involves Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has grabbed the attention of the media and analysts with his strident tone.

US President George Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are expected to arrive at some compromise deal on the issue of emissions, but Russia and Europe's diplomacy remains unpredictable.

It's interesting to see how world leaders are using the issue of environment to strengthen their own political careers.

Merkel is striving hard to come out a winner at the end of the day. She is trying to create a face-saving formula with Bush on the issue of gas emissions.

Whether she will win or not will be known in a few hours from now.