| 4th G7 summit | |
|---|---|
 Schaumburg Palace in Bonn | |
| Host country | West Germany |
| Dates | 16–17 July 1978 |
| Participants | |
| Follows | 3rd G7 summit |
| Precedes | 5th G7 summit |
The 4th G7 Summit was held at Bonn, West Germany between 16 and 17 July 1978. The venue for the summit meeting was at the former official residence of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, the Palais Schaumburg.[1]
The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada (since 1976),[2] and the President of the European Commission (starting officially in 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 first Group of Six (G6) summit 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 -- n.b., the G7 becomes the Group of Eight (G7) with the inclusion of Russia starting in 1997.
- ^ 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.