24th G8 summit

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24th G8 summit
Logo BIRMINGHAM 1998.png
24th G8 summit official logo
Host country United Kingdom
Dates May 15–17, 1998
Follows 23rd G8 summit
Precedes 25th G8 summit

The 24th G8 Summit was held in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom on May 15–17, 1998. The venue for this summit meeting was the International Convention Centre, Birmingham.[1]

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition of Russia.[2] In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.[3] The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.[4]

Leaders at the Summit

The leaders meet at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

The G8 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.[3]

The 24th G8 summit was the last summit for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.

Core G8 participants

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[5]

Core G8 members
Host nation and leader are indicated in bold text.
Member Represented by Title
Canada Canada Jean Chrétien [1] Prime Minister
France France Jacques Chirac [1] President
Germany Germany Helmut Kohl [1] Chancellor
Italy Italy Romano Prodi [1] Prime Minister
Japan Japan Ryutaro Hashimoto [1] Prime Minister
Russia Russia Boris Yeltsin [1] President
United Kingdom United Kingdom Tony Blair [1] Prime Minister
United States United States Bill Clinton [1] President
European Union European Commission Jacques Santer [6] President

Priorities

Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda for negotiations, which take place primarily amongst multi-national civil servants in the weeks before the summit itself, leading to a joint declaration which all countries can agree to sign.

Issues

The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions.[4]

Accomplishments

In 1998, the summit leaders proclaimed an "Action Program on Forests" with a pledge to report back on progress in 2000, but there is little evidence of follow-up action or program.[7]

Business opportunity

For some, the G8 summit became a profit-generating event; as for example, the official G8 Summit magazines which have been published under the auspices of the host nations for distribution to all attendees since 1998.[8]

Gallery

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Summit Meetings in the Past.
  2. ↑ Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Globe and Mail (Toronto).5 July 2008.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", 3 July 2008.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
  5. ↑ Rieffel, Lex. "Regional Voices in Global Governance: Looking to 2010 (Part IV)," Brookings. 27 March 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site).
  6. ↑ MOFA: Summit (24); G8 Research Group: Delegations; "EU and the G8"
  7. ↑ Sadruddin, Aga Khan. "It's Time to Save the Forests," The New York Times 19 July 2000.
  8. ↑ Prestige Media: "official" G8 Summit magazine

References

External links

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