The 8th G7 Summit was held in Versailles, France from 4 to 6 June 1982. The venue for the summit meetings was at the Palace of Versailles.[1]

8th G7 summit
The Palace of Versailles, the venue of the 8th G7 summit
Host countryFrance
DatesJune 4–6, 1982
Venue(s)Palace of Versailles
CitiesVersailles, Yvelines
Follows7th G7 summit
Precedes9th G7 summit

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada (since 1976),[2] and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 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 Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.[4]

Leaders at the summit edit

 
Summit leaders at the Palace of Versailles (left to right): Gaston Thorn, Zenko Suzuki, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, François Mitterrand, Helmut Schmidt, Pierre Trudeau, Giovanni Spadolini, and Wilfried Martens

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.[3]

The 8th G7 summit was the last summit for German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini and Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki.

Participants edit

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[5][1][6]

Core G7 members
Host state and leader are shown in bold text.
Member Represented by Title
  Canada Pierre Trudeau Prime Minister
  France François Mitterrand President
  West Germany Helmut Schmidt Chancellor
  Italy Giovanni Spadolini Prime Minister
  Japan Zenkō Suzuki Prime Minister
  United Kingdom Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister
  United States Ronald Reagan President
  European Community Gaston Thorn President of the Commission
  Wilfried Martens[7] President of the Council

Issues edit

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]

Gallery edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Summit Meetings in the Past.
  2. ^ 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 (G8) with the inclusion of Russia starting in 1997.
  3. ^ a b Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", July 3, 2008.
  4. ^ a b 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)," Archived June 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Brookings. March 27, 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site). Archived June 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ MOFA: Summit (8); European Union: "EU and the G8" Archived February 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ "Le sommet de Versailles". chateaudeversailles.fr (in French). Retrieved 27 August 2017.

References edit

External links edit

48°48′17″N 2°07′13″E / 48.8048°N 2.1204°E / 48.8048; 2.1204