| 23rd G8 summit | |
|---|---|
 | |
.jpg) Family photo of the G8 leaders | |
| Host country | United States |
| Dates | June 20–22, 1997 |
| Follows | 22nd G7 summit |
| Precedes | 24th G8 summit |
The 23rd G8 summit was held on June 20–22, 1997 in Denver, Colorado, United States. The venue was the newly constructed Denver Public Library in downtown Denver.[1] The locations of previous G8 summits to have been hosted by the United States include: Dorado, Puerto Rico (1976), Williamsburg, Virginia (1983), and Houston, Texas (1990).
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.[2] In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 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 initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.[4]
- ^ Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Summit Meetings in the Past.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", July 3, 2008.
- ^ Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.