26th G8 summit

26th G8 summit
Host country	Japan
Dates	21–23 July 2000
Venue(s)	Nago, Okinawa Prefecture
Participants	Canada  France  Germany  Italy  Japan  Russia  United Kingdom  United States  European Union
Follows	25th G8 summit
Precedes	27th G8 summit

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

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 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.^[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

Meeting session on 22 July 2000

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 US President Bill Clinton. It was also the first and only summit for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori.

Participants

These summit participants were 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 Japanese yen note 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]

Gallery of participating leaders

Core G8 participants

• 
  Canada
  Jean Chrétien,
  Prime Minister
• 
  France
  Jacques Chirac,
  President
• 
  Germany
  Gerhard Schröder,
  Chancellor
• 
  Italy
  Giuliano Amato,
  Prime Minister
• 
  Japan
  Yoshiro Mori,
  Prime Minister (Host)
• 
  Russia
  Vladimir Putin,
  President
• 
  United Kingdom
  Tony Blair,
  Prime Minister
• 
  United States
  Bill Clinton,
  President

• 
  European Union
  Romano Prodi,
  Commission President

Notes

1. 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.
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. "2000 G8 Summit in Okinawa". Archived from the original on 2002-01-06. Retrieved 2011-05-16.
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.

References

• Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2005). Staying together: the G8 summit confronts the 21st century. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-4267-1; OCLC 217979297
• Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-16486-3; ISBN 978-0-203-45085-7; OCLC 39013643

External links

• No official website is created for any G7 summit prior to 1995 -- see the 21st G7 summit.
• Official prefectural website: Okinawa Summit 2000 Archives
• Japanese Prime Minister's Office (Kantei) website: select summit photos
• Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) website: select summit documents
• University of Toronto: G8 Research Group, G8 Information Centre
  • G8 2000, delegations & documents