26th G8 summit

The 26th G8 summit was held in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, on July 21–23, 2000.

26th G8 summit
Kyusyu-Okinawa Summit
26th G8 summit official logo
Host country Japan
DatesJuly 21–23, 2000
Follows25th G8 summit
Precedes27th G8 summit

Overview

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.[1] In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.[2] 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 West Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.[3]

The G8 summits during the 21st century have inspired widespread debates, protests and demonstrations; and the two- or three-day event becomes more than the sum of its parts, elevating the participants, the issues and the venue as focal points for activist pressure.[4]

Ice hockey game: Canada vs. Japan

In conjunction with Kyushu-Okinawa summit, a Canadian team played the local Haebaru Dragonfires in a friendly. On July 21, the teams played the only ice rink on the island and in spite of above-35'C weather. About 4,500 Okinawan residents were in attendance and very keen ice hockey fans who are proud of their arena and their tradition of ice hockey in spite of being a remote tropical island. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien skated in the pre-game warm-up and performed the ceremonial puck drop. The Canadian team beat the Haebaru Dragonfires quite handily. Leading scorers were Andrew Donnelly, Canada (4 goals) and Paul Sabourin, Canada (3 goals). Following the game the teams engaged in a ceremonial jersey exchange. The mayor of Haebaru Town said "inviting the Prime Minister is a chance to strengthen the roots of ice hockey in Haebaru Town, while promoting stronger cross-cultural ties with Canada in the future." [5]

Leaders at the summit
2000 G8 "family photo" at Bankoku Shinryokan. From left to right: Giuliano Amato, Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin, Bill Clinton, Yoshiro Mori, Jacques Chirac, Jean Chrétien, Gerhard Schröder and Romano Prodi.

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.[2]

The 26th G8 summit was the first summit for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and was the last summit for Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and U.S. President Bill Clinton. It was also the first and only summit for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori.

Participants

These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]

Core G8 members
Host state and leader are shown in bold text.
Member Represented by Title
Canada Jean Chrétien Prime Minister
France Jacques Chirac President
Germany Gerhard Schröder Chancellor
Italy Giuliano Amato Prime Minister
Japan Yoshirō Mori Prime Minister
Russia Vladimir Putin President
United Kingdom Tony Blair Prime Minister
United States Bill Clinton President
European Union Romano Prodi Commission President
Jacques Chirac Council President

Priorities
2000 yen featuring Shureimon in commemoration of the summit

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.

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.[3]

Agenda

Global health was first introduced as an agenda at this G8 summit in 2000.[16]

Business opportunity

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.[17]

A picture of Shureimon appears on the Japanese 2,000 yen note, released in 2000 in commemoration of the summit in Okinawa; and the Japanese government encountered criticism for having spent more than $750 million to hold this event.[18]

Namie Amuro's song "Never End" was made for the summit.[19]

Notes
  1. Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Globe and Mail (Toronto). July 5, 2008.
  2. Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", July 3, 2008.
  3. Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
  4. "Influencing Policy on International Development: G8," Archived 2012-05-13 at the Wayback Machine BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2002-01-06. Retrieved 2011-05-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  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. Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Chrétien arrival, 20 July 2000 morning; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  8. MOFA: Chirac arrival, 19 July 2000; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  9. MOFA: Schröder arrival, 20 July 2000 afternoon; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  10. MOFA: Amato arrival, 20 July 2000 morning; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  11. MOFA: Mori arrival, 20 July 2000 afternoon; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  12. MOFA: Putin arrival, 20 July 2000 afternoon; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  13. MOFA: Blair arrival, 20 July 2000 afternoon; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  14. MOFA: Clinton arrival, 19 July 2000 morning; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations.
  15. MOFA: Prodi arrival, 18 July 2000; 2000 Okinawa G-8, delegations; "EU and the G8" Archived February 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  16. Kurokawa, Kyoshi et al. "Italian G8 Summit: a critical juncture for global health," Archived 2009-03-27 at the Wayback Machine The Lancet (British Medical Association). Vol. 373, Iss. 9663 (14 February 2009), pp. 526-527.
  17. Prestige Media: Archived 2009-05-19 at the Wayback Machine "official" G8 Summit magazine Archived 2009-05-18 at the Wayback Machine
  18. Sims, Calvin. "Group of 8 Pledges to Help Poor Countries," New York Times. July 24, 2000.
  19. Watts, Jonathan (2000-07-24). "Okinawa diary". London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
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References
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