The 24th G8 Summit was held in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom on 15–17 May 1998. The venue for this summit meeting was the International Convention Centre.Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA): Summit Meetings in the Past.
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.Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Globe and Mail (Toronto).5 July 2008. In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", 3 July 2008. 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 Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
Leaders at the summit
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.
The 24th G8 summit was the last summit for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.
Participants These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:Rieffel, Lex, "Regional Voices in Global Governance: Looking to 2010 (Part IV)," Brookings. 27 March 2009; "core" members (Muskoka 2010 G-8, official site). MOFA: Summit (24); G8 Research Group: Delegations; "EU and the G8"
Core G8 membersHost state and leader are shown in bold text. Member Represented by Title Canada Jean Chrétien Prime Minister France Jacques Chirac President Germany Helmut Kohl Chancellor Italy Romano Prodi Prime Minister Japan Ryutaro Hashimoto Prime Minister Russia Boris Yeltsin President United Kingdom Tony Blair Prime Minister United States Bill Clinton President European Union Jacques Santer Commission President Tony Blair Council President
Deliberations 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. Traditionally, the host country of a 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.
The summit issued an "Action Program on Forests", which focused on five themes: monitoring and assessment national forest programmes protected areas private sector illegal logging
and made a pledge to report back on progress in 2000. One view published in 2000 found little evidence of follow-up action or programme,Sadruddin, Aga Khan. "It's Time to Save the Forests," The New York Times 19 July 2000 but a formal report on implementation was drawn together for the Kyushu Okinawa Summit in July 2000, which included country-by-country reports on implementation.Report on The Implementation of The G8 Action Programme on Forests, G7 G20 Documents Database, published on 21 July 2000, accessed on 10 August 2025
Outside the summit, a reported assembly of around 70,000 people formed a human chain around the city,Holyhead, V. (2006), Welcoming the Word in Year C: With Burning Hearts, p. 132, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota demonstrating concern regarding the indebted poverty of many poor countries and the need for international leaders to take action to remit that debt.
Criticisms 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.Prestige Media: "official" G8 Summit magazine
Gallery of participating leaders Core G8 participants
References
Sources Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. ; ; Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. ; ; ; ;
External links Official G8 website: Birmingham summit, 1998; n.b., no official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 — see the 21st G7 summit. University of Toronto: G8 Research Group, G8 Information Centre G8 1998, delegations & documents