1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting

15th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
Host country	United Kingdom
Dates	24–27 October 1997
Venue(s)	St Andrews
Cities	Edinburgh
Heads of State or Government	42
Chair	Tony Blair (Prime Minister)
Follows	1995
Precedes	1999
Key points
Development Free trade Membership criteria Edinburgh Declaration Microstates Nigeria

The 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was the 15th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations. It was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 24 October and 27 October 1997, and hosted by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It was the largest summit in modern Commonwealth history up to that point (a title to be taken from it by the 1999 CHOGM), with forty-two heads of state or government.^[1] It was also attended by Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who had recently been ousted as President of Sierra Leone. Most notable, however, was the emergence of the civil society fringe of the 'People's Commonwealth', transforming a conference of policy-makers into a cultural celebration.^[1] For this reason, most participants and commentators considered it a success.^[2]

The appearance of Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, at the opening of the CHOGM was a novelty. The monarch had never appeared at a CHOGM before, and it marked the beginning of a renewed interest in the Commonwealth from the monarchy.^[1] The rest of the opening ceremony was low-key.

The Edinburgh Declaration was agreed, endorsing the report of the Inter-Governmental Group on Criteria for Commonwealth Membership (IGCCM) which consolidated and revised previous rules and agreements which had developed over the previous 60 years.