Summit (meeting)

A summit meeting (or just summit) is an international meeting of heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security, and a prearranged agenda. Notable summit meetings include those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin during World War II. However, the term summit was not commonly used for such meetings until the Geneva Summit (1955).^[1] During the Cold War, when American presidents joined with Soviet or Chinese counterparts for one-on-one meetings, the media labelled the event as a "summit". The post–Cold War era has produced an increase in the number of "summit" events. Nowadays, international summits are the most common expression for global governance.^[2]

Notable summits[]

World War II conferences[]

U.S.–British Staff Conference (ABC–1) (January 29 – March 27, 1941)
Atlantic Conference (August 9–12, 1941)
Moscow Conference (September 29 – October 1, 1941)
Arcadia Conference (December 22, 1941 – January 14, 1942)
Second Washington Conference (June 20–25, 1942)
Second Moscow Conference (August 12–19, 1942)
Cherchell Conference (October 21–22, 1942)
Casablanca Conference (January 14–24, 1943)
Bermuda Conference (April 19, 1943)
Third Washington Conference (May 12–27, 1943)
Quebec Conference (August 17–24, 1943)
Third Moscow Conference (October 18 – November 1, 1943)
Cairo Conference (November 22–26, 1943)
Tehran Conference (November 28 – December 1, 1943)
Second Cairo Conference (December 4–6, 1943)
Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference (May 1–16, 1944)
United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (Bretton Woods) (July 1–15, 1944)
Dumbarton Oaks Conference (August 21–29, 1944)
Second Quebec Conference (September 12–16, 1944)
Fourth Moscow Conference (October 9, 1944)
Malta Conference (January 30 – February 2, 1945)
Yalta Conference (February 4–11, 1945)
United Nations Conference on International Organization (April 25 – June 26, 1945)
Potsdam Conference (July 17 – August 2, 1945)

Arab League summits[]

1974 – Rabat summit conference

2002 – Beirut Summit

Earth Summits[]

1992 – Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2002 – Earth Summit, Johannesburg, South Africa,
2012 – Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

G–summits[]

Group of Six (G6), heads of government

1975 – 1st G6 summit, Château de Rambouillet

Group of Seven (G7), heads of government

1976 – 2nd G7 summit, San Juan
1977 – 3rd G7 summit, London
1978 – 4th G7 summit, Bonn
1979 – 5th G7 summit, Tokyo
1980 – 6th G7 summit, Venice
1981 – 7th G7 summit, Montebello
1982 – 8th G7 summit, Versailles
1983 – 9th G7 summit, Williamsburg
1984 – 10th G7 summit, London
1985 – 11th G7 summit, Bonn
1986 – 12th G7 summit, Tokyo
1987 – 13th G7 summit, Venice
1988 – 14th G7 summit, Toronto
1989 – 15th G7 summit, Grande Arche
1990 – 16th G7 summit, Houston
1991 – 17th G7 summit, London
1992 – 18th G7 summit, Munich
1993 – 19th G7 summit, Tokyo
1994 – 20th G7 summit, Naples
1995 – 21st G7 summit, Halifax
1996 – 22nd G7 summit, Lyon

Group of Eight (G8), heads of government

1997 – 23rd G8 summit, Denver
1998 – 24th G8 summit, Birmingham
1999 – 25th G8 summit, Cologne
2000 – 26th G8 summit, Okinawa
2001 – 27th G8 summit, Genoa
2002 – 28th G8 summit, Kananaskis
2003 – 29th G8 summit, Évian-les-Bains
2004 – 30th G8 summit, Sea Island
2005 – 31st G8 summit, Gleneagles
2006 – 32nd G8 summit, Saint Petersburg
2007 – 33rd G8 summit, Heiligendamm
2008 – 34th G8 summit, Tōyako
2009 – 35th G8 summit, L'Aquila, Abruzzo
2010 – 36th G8 summit, Huntsville
2011 – 37th G8 summit, Deauville
2012 – 38th G8 summit, Camp David, Maryland
2013 – 39th G8 summit, Lough Erne in County Fermanagh

Group of Seven (G7), heads of government

2014 – 40th G7 summit, Brussels
2015 – 41st G7 summit, Schloss Elmau, Bavaria
2016 – 42nd G7 summit, Shima, Mie Prefecture
2017 – 43rd G7 summit, Taormina, Sicily
2018 – 44th G7 summit, La Malbaie, Quebec
2019 – 45th G7 summit, Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Group of Twenty, heads of government

2008 G-20 Washington summit
2009 G-20 London summit
2009 G-20 Pittsburgh summit
2010 G-20 Toronto summit
2010 G-20 Seoul summit
2011 G-20 Cannes summit
2012 G-20 Los Cabos Summit
2013 G-20 Saint Petersburg summit
2014 G-20 Brisbane summit
2015 G-20 Antalya summit
2016 G-20 Hangzhou summit
2017 G-20 Hamburg summit
2018 G-20 Buenos Aires summit
2019 G-20 Osaka summit

European summits[]

1969 – The Hague: Foreign policy and enlargement.
1974 – Paris: Creation of the Council.
1985 – Milan: Initiate IGC leading to the Single European Act.
1991 – Maastricht': Agreement on the Maastricht Treaty.
1997 – Amsterdam: Agreement on the Amsterdam Treaty.
1998 – Brussels: Selected member states to adopt the euro.

1999 – Cologne: Declaration on military forces.
1999 – Tampere: Institutional reform
2000 – Lisbon: Lisbon Strategy
2002 – Copenhagen: Agreement for May 2004 enlargement.
2007 – Lisbon: Agreement on the Lisbon Treaty.

Inter-Korean summits[]

2000 – 1st Korean summit
2007 – 2nd Korean summit

2018 – April 2018 inter-Korean summit
2018 – May 2018 inter-Korean summit
2018 – September 2018 inter-Korean summit

Millennium Development Goals[]

2000 – Millennium Summit, New York City

2005 – 2005 World Summit, New York City

South American Summits[]

2000 – 2000 South American Summit, Brasília
2002 – South American Summit, Guayaquil

2004 – 2004 South American Summit, Cuzco, Peru

Summits of the Americas[]

1994 – 1st Summit of the Americas at Miami in the United States.
1996—Summit of the Americas on Sustainable Development at Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.
1998 – 2nd Summit of the Americas at Santiago in Chile.
2001 – 3rd Summit of the Americas, in Quebec City, Canada.