19th G7 summit

19th G7 summit
State Guesthouse, Akasaka Palace[1]
Host countryJapan
DatesJuly 7–9, 1993
Follows18th G7 summit
Precedes20th G7 summit

The 19th G7 Summit was held in Tokyo, Japan, on July 7–9, 1993. The venue for the summit meetings was the State Guesthouse in Tokyo, Japan.[2]

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, Canada (since 1976),[3] and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981).[4] 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 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.[5]

Leaders at the summit

Leaders of the G7 posing for photographs in Tokyo, 9 July 1993

The G7 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.[4]

The 19th G7 summit was the first summit for US President Bill Clinton and the last summit for Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa. It was also the first and only summit for Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell and Italian Prime Minister Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

Participants

President Bill Clinton meets with Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell during the G7 Summit in Tokyo

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[6][2][7]

Core G7 members
Host state and leader are shown in bold text.
Member Represented by Title
Canada Canada Kim Campbell Prime Minister
France France François Mitterrand President
Germany Germany Helmut Kohl Chancellor
Italy Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Prime Minister
Japan Japan Kiichi Miyazawa Prime Minister
United Kingdom United Kingdom John Major Prime Minister
United States United States Bill Clinton President
European Union European Union Henning Christophersen Commission Vice-President
Jean-Luc Dehaene Council President

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.[5] Issues which were discussed at this summit included:

  • World Economy
  • Trade
  • The Environment
  • Russia and Other Countries in Transition
  • The Developing Countries
  • International Cooperation and Future Summits

Accomplishments

In 1993, the summit leaders called for an "international agreement" to "protect forests," but there is little evidence of follow-up action.[8]

Core G7 participants

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Cabinet Office, Government of Japan; State Guest House, Akasaka Palace Archived 2013-11-04 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 2013-6-19.
  2. ^ a b Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Summit Meetings in the Past.. Accessed 2009-03-11. 2009-04-30.
  3. ^ Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Archived 2008-10-11 at the Wayback Machine Globe and Mail (Toronto). July 5, 2008 -- n.b., the G7 becomes the Group of Eight (G7) with the inclusion of Russia starting in 1997.
  4. ^ a b Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", July 3, 2008.
  5. ^ a b Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
  6. ^ Rieffel, Lex. "Regional Voices in Global Governance: Looking to 2010 (Part IV)," Archived June 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Brookings. March 27, 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site). Archived June 2, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ MOFA: Summit (19); European Union: "EU and the G8" Archived February 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Sadruddin, Aga Khan. "It's Time to Save the Forests," New York Times. July 19, 2000.

References

  • Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-1185-1; OCLC 43186692
  • Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-16486-3; ISBN 978-0-203-45085-7; OCLC 39013643