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17th G7 summit
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1991 international leader meeting in England
July 2026
17th G7 summit Lancaster House (5880536589).jpg Lancaster House in London United Kingdom London Lancaster House 15–17 July 1991 16th G7 summit 18th G7 summit
The 17th G7 Summit was held in England between 15 and 17 July 1991. The venue for the summit meetings was Lancaster House in London.Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Summit Meetings in the Past.
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),Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," https://web.archive.org/web/20081011063004/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080704.wG8-analysis05/BNStory/International/columnists 11 October 2008 Globe and Mail (Toronto). 5 July 2008 – n.b., the G7 becomes the Group of Eight (G7) with the inclusion of Russia starting in 1997. and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 1981).Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", 3 July 2008. 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.Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
Leaders at the summit
thumb|Summit leaders at the Lancaster House: (left to right) François Mitterrand, George H. W. Bush, Giulio Andreotti, Jacques Delors, Toshiki Kaifu, John Major, Brian Mulroney, and Helmut Kohl
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.
The 17th G7 summit was the first summit for British Prime Minister John Major. It was also the last summit for Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti and Japanese Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu.
Participants
These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:Rieffel, Lex. "Regional Voices in Global Governance: Looking to 2010 (Part IV)," https://web.archive.org/web/20100603074840/http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2009/0327_global_governance_rieffel.aspx 3 June 2010 Brookings. 27 March 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site). https://web.archive.org/web/20100602190742/http://g8.gc.ca/about/member-states/ 2 June 2010 MOFA: Summit (17); European Union: "EU and the G8" https://web.archive.org/web/20070226165606/http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/union/showpage_en_union.external.g8.php 26 February 2007
Core G7 membersHost state and leader are shown in bold text. Member Represented by Title CAN Canada Brian Mulroney Prime Minister FRA 1974 France François Mitterrand President Germany Germany Helmut Kohl Chancellor Italy Italy Giulio Andreotti Prime Minister Japan 1947 Japan Toshiki Kaifu Prime Minister UK United Kingdom John Major Prime Minister US United States George H. W. Bush President European Union European Community Jacques Delors Commission President Ruud Lubbers Council PresidentGuest Invitees (Countries) Member Represented by Title USSR Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev President
Major sent a letter to other members of the G7, asking for their permission to invite Mikhail Gorbachev, who has been pressing to come to London to plead for more Western economic support for his country. Pressure to invite Gorbachev had come mainly from the leaders of France, Germany, and Italy who have made public appeals for him to be invited to attend; but Britain sent the official invitation inviting the Soviet Union to participate.Schmidt, William E. "Britain Is Proposing to Invite Gorbachev to London Talks," New York Times. 7 June 1991. A wry comment which was oft repeated during the summit was that G7 had become the G8½ with the participation of the European Community and the meetings with Gorbachev.Apple, R.W. "Reporter's Notebook; British Hosts, Being British, Plan an Understated Splendor," New York Times. 15 July 1991.
Issues
thumb|The "grand gallery" runs the length of one side of the building. The 1827 layout of the principal floor is largely unchanged from the initial construction plans.
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. In anticipation of this conference, a new 35-foot-long table was built for the Long Gallery, where the main negotiating sessions were planned to unfold. Issues which were discussed at this summit included:
Economic Policy
International Trade
Energy
Central and Eastern Europe
The Soviet Union
The Middle East
The Developing Countries and Debt
Environment
Drugs
Migration
Accomplishments
In 1991, the summit leaders proclaimed "concern" about protecting existing forests, but there is little evidence of follow-up action.Sadruddin, Aga Khan. "It's Time to Save the Forests," New York Times. 19 July 2000.
Gallery of participating leaders
Core G7 participants
Guest Invitees
See also
G8
List of Soviet Union–United States summits
Notes
2
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. 978-0-7546-1185-1; OCLC 43186692
Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. 978-0-415-16486-3; 978-0-203-45085-7; 39013643
External links
No official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 – see the 21st G7 summit.
University of Toronto: G8 Research Group, G8 Information Centre
G7 1991, delegations & documents
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