The Group of Eight (G8 ) was a group made up of Canada , France , Germany , Italy , Japan , Russia (suspended) , the United Kingdom and the United States . The European Commission is also represented in the committee . The group has conferences or meetings throughout the year, it researches policies , and has a summit meeting once a year. The heads of government of each G8 country attend the summit meeting.
Each year a different country takes over the presidency of the group for the duration of the year. The country that holds the presidency sets the agenda for the year and hosts the summit for that year. The first G6 meeting was in 1975. Canada joined in 1976, making G7. Russia made it G8 in 1997.
The organization's official 2014 summit was not held in Moscow as previously planned, due to the invasion and takeover of Crimea .[ 2] On March 24, 2014, all seven member nations voted to suspend Russia from the G-8.[ 3] [ 4] The meeting was held in Brussels instead, and the G8 will be called G7 since there are now seven leaders.
The G8 is not considered an international organization because it does not have administrative structure. This means that besides the president, there are no official titles for the members, they are all considered equal. Their meetings are not formal. The goal is to talk about global topics and problems in a relaxed manner.
There are many global problems and issues that can be discussed at meetings. Some common topics of discussion include: health , law enforcement , labor , economic and social development, energy , environment , foreign affairs , justice , terrorism , and trade .
The annual meeting of G8 leaders is attended by the heads of government[ 5] and other invited guests. It is usually held for three days in the middle of the year. Each year one of the G8 countries is considered the G8 president. The country of the G8 presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting a summit during that year. The first summit meeting was held in November 1975 in France.[ 6]
Date
Host country
Host leader
Location held
Website
Notes
1st
November 15–17, 1975
France
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
Rambouillet (Castle of Rambouillet)
G6 Summit
2nd
June 27–28, 1976
United States
Gerald R. Ford
Dorado, Puerto Rico [ 7]
Canada joins the group, forming the G7[ 7]
3rd
May 7–8, 1977
United Kingdom
James Callaghan
London
President of the European Commission is invited to join the annual G7 summits
4th
July 16–17, 1978
West Germany
Helmut Schmidt
Bonn , North Rhine-Westphalia
5th
June 28–29, 1979
Japan
Masayoshi Ōhira
Tokyo
6th
June 22–23, 1980
Italy
Francesco Cossiga
Venice
7th
July 20–21, 1981
Canada
Pierre E. Trudeau
Montebello, Quebec
8th
June 4–6, 1982
France
François Mitterrand
Versailles
9th
May 28–30, 1983
United States
Ronald Reagan
Williamsburg , Virginia
10th
June 7–9, 1984
United Kingdom
Margaret Thatcher
London
11th
May 2–4, 1985
West Germany
Helmut Kohl
Bonn , North Rhine-Westphalia
12th
May 4–6, 1986
Japan
Yasuhiro Nakasone
Tokyo
13th
June 8–10, 1987
Italy
Amintore Fanfani
Venice
14th
June 19–21, 1988
Canada
Brian Mulroney
Toronto
15th
July 14–16, 1989
France
François Mitterrand
Paris
16th
July 9–11, 1990
United States
George H. W. Bush
Houston , Texas
17th
July 15–17, 1991
United Kingdom
John Major
London
18th
July 6–8, 1992
Germany
Helmut Kohl
Munich , Bavaria
19th
July 7–9, 1993
Japan
Kiichi Miyazawa
Tokyo
20th
July 8–10, 1994
Italy
Silvio Berlusconi
Naples
21st
June 15–17, 1995
Canada
Jean Chrétien
Halifax , Nova Scotia
[ 8]
22nd
June 27–29, 1996
France
Jacques Chirac
Lyon
International organizations which are invited include: United Nations , World Bank , International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization .[ 9]
23rd
June 20–22, 1997
United States
Bill Clinton
Denver , Colorado
[ 10]
Russia joins the group, forming G8
24th
May 15–17, 1998
United Kingdom
Tony Blair
Birmingham , England
[ 11]
25th
June 18–20, 1999
Germany
Gerhard Schröder
Cologne , North Rhine-Westphalia
[ 12]
26th
July 21–23, 2000
Japan
Yoshiro Mori
Nago, Okinawa
[ 13]
27th
July 20–22, 2001
Italy
Silvio Berlusconi
Genoa
[ 14]
28th
June 26–27, 2002
Canada
Jean Chrétien
Kananaskis, Alberta
[ 15]
29th
June 2–3, 2003
France
Jacques Chirac
Évian-les-Bains
[ 16]
30th
June 8–10, 2004
United States
George W. Bush
Sea Island, Georgia
[ 17]
31st
July 6–8, 2005
United Kingdom
Tony Blair
Gleneagles, Scotland
[ 18]
32nd
July 15–17, 2006
Russia
Vladimir Putin
Strelna, St. Petersburg
[ 19]
33rd
June 6–8, 2007
Germany
Angela Merkel
Heiligendamm, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
[ 20]
34th
July 7–9, 2008
Japan
Yasuo Fukuda
Toyako (Lake Toya), Hokkaido
[ 21]
35th
July 8–10, 2009
Italy
Silvio Berlusconi
L'Aquila , Abruzzo
[ 22]
36th
June 25–26, 2010[ 23]
Canada
Stephen Harper
Huntsville, Ontario[ 24]
[ 25]
37th
May 26–27, 2011
France
Nicolas Sarkozy
Deauville ,[ 26] [ 27] Basse-Normandie
[ 28]
38th
May 18–19, 2012
United States
Barack Obama
Camp David [ 29]
39th
June 17-18, 2013
United Kingdom
David Cameron
Enniskillen , Northern Ireland
40th (suspended)
2014
Russia
Vladimir Putin
Moscow [ 30]
Cancelled; Russia is suspended, restoring the organization to G7
41st
June 4-5, 2015
Germany
Angela Merkel
Schloss Elmau, Garmisch , Bavaria
42nd
May 26-27, 2016
Japan
Shinzō Abe
Shima, Mie Prefecture
43rd
May 26–27, 2017
Italy
Paolo Gentiloni
Taormina, Sicily
44rd
June 8-9, 2018
Canada
Justin Trudeau
Charlevoix, Quebec
The eight countries that make up the G8 represent about 14% of the people in the world but produce over 65% of the world's economic output measured by gross domestic product (GDP).
2004
Population
GDP
Millions of people
%
Billions of dollars
%
World
6345.1
100.0
39833.6
100.0
United States
350.5
4.6
12179.9
30.7
Japan
127.8
2.0
4749.9
11.9
Germany
82.6
1.3
2749.0
6.3
United Kingdom
59.4
0.9
2136.4
5.2
France
60.0
0.9
1858.7
4.7
Italy
57.6
0.9
1503.6
3.8
Canada
31.9
0.5
905.6
2.3
Russia
142.8
2.3
487.3
1.2
G8
855.6
13.5
26270.4
66.1
Source: World Development Report 2006, World Bank
The 36th G8 summit in Huntsville, Ontario in Canada The 38th G8 summit at Camp David in the US.
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