President Hu Jintao will attend the dialogue between G8 and developing nations on July 9 at Lake Toya in Hokkaido, Japan. The dialogue, which was launched in 2000, took a step forward in 2003 when China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico joined the talks and has been growing into a mechanism in recent years.

Taking part in the upcoming 2008 dialogue are not only the five developing countries mentioned above but also heads of state from Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania as well as the president of the African Union. And, because Japan has invited state leaders of Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Indonesia, the meeting has now been called a dialogue between G8 and "nations concerned" instead of "developing countries".

This is an important meeting held at an extraordinary moment. Right now the problem of global warming and greenhouse gas reduction remains hot, international food prices are still high, oil futures price keeps rising as a result of speculation with "hot money". Many developing nations are suffering from heavy inflation while the world economic growth is slowing down. The Iran nuclear crisis is anything but easing as the counter-terrorism situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is getting tense again.

So many issues of global significance and regional thorny problems await resolution while the world is rocked by a multitude of conflicts, which are making the international situation more complicated and daunting by the day and require concerted efforts by the world community to resolve. The dialogue will be focused on these issues.

The G8 will lead the dialogue, which is an important experiment in broadening its international appeal as well as reorienting and repositioning itself, with the ultimate goal set at improving its ability to deal with the changing international situation that is becoming more complicated everyday and preventing its leading position in the world from falling down.

Whether the G8 likes it or not, a sense of equality has been growing noticeably in the dialogue in recent years as the influence of developing nations and especially of the emerging economies increases while developed countries find themselves in need of help from developing nations more than ever.

Today the dialogue as a key international platform can help enhance communication, exchanges and cooperation between developed and developing countries and facilitate discussions by the international community of regional problems as well as global issues to jointly advance world peace, stability and development.