Summit Name: | 2nd G7 summit |
Country: | United States |
Dates: | June 27–28, 1976 |
Follows: | 1st G6 summit |
Precedes: | 3rd G7 summit |
Other Titles: | Rambouillet II Economic Summit at Puerto Rico |
Venues: | Dorado Beach Hotel (now Dorado Beach Resort) |
Participants: |
The 2nd G7 Summit, also called Rambouillet II,[1] was held at Dorado, Puerto Rico, between June 27 and 28, 1976.[2] The venue for the summit meetings was the Dorado Beach Hotel, now Dorado Beach Resort, which is near San Juan, Puerto Rico.[3]
The Group of Six (G6) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States; and the Group of Seven (G7), meeting for the first time this year, was formed with the addition of Canada.[4] This summit, and the others which would follow, were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a kind of frustrated rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was an element in the genesis of cooperation between France's president and West Germany's chancellor as they conceived the first summit of the G6.[5]
The G7 is an unofficial annual forum for the leaders of Canada, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The 2nd G7 summit was the first summit for British Prime Minister James Callaghan and, as it was formed with the addition of Canada, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. It was also the last summit for Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro, Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Miki, and US President Gerald Ford.
The first summit session began at 4:15 p.m. and concluded at 7:05 p.m., while the second and final took place between 9:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.,[6] however, the leaders' held speeches until 3:00 p.m. Both sessions were celebrated at the Dorado Beach Hotel's Salon Del Mar.
These summit participants are the current "core members" of the international forum:[7] [2] [8] Trudeau of Canada had been invited because he had eight years experience.
Core G7 members Host state and leader are shown in bold text. | |||||
Member | Represented by | Title | In office since | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | Pierre Trudeau | Prime Minister | 1968 | ||
France | Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | President | 1974 | ||
West Germany | Helmut Schmidt | Chancellor | 1974 | ||
Italy | Aldo Moro | Prime Minister | 1974 | ||
Japan | Takeo Miki | Prime Minister | 1974 | ||
United Kingdom | James Callaghan | Prime Minister | 1976 | ||
United States | Gerald Ford | President | 1974 |
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.[5]