24th G8 summit | |
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24th G8 summit official logo |
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Summit details | |
Host country | |
Dates | May 15-17, 1998 |
The 24th G8 Summit was held at Birmingham, England, United Kingdom between May 15 to 17 1998. The venue for this summit meeting was the Birmingham International Convention Centre.[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]
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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]
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. |
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Member | Represented by | Title | |
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Canada | Jean Chrétien [1] | Prime Minister | |
France | Jacques Chirac [1] | President | |
West Germany | Helmut Kohl [1] | Chancellor | |
Italy | Romano Prodi [1] | Prime Minister | |
Japan | Ryutaro Hashimoto [1] | Prime Minister | |
Russia | Boris Yeltsin [1] | President | |
United Kingdom | Tony Blair [1] | Prime Minister | |
United States | Bill Clinton [1] | President | |
European Commission | Jacques Santer [6] | President |
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.
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]
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]
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]
Preceded by 23rd G8 summit |
24th G8 summit 1998 United Kingdom |
Succeeded by 25th G8 summit |