34th G8 summit Facts for Kids

G8 "family photo" at the Hokkaido summit. Leaders from Canada, the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are shown.

The 34th G8 summit was an important meeting held in 2008. Leaders from eight major countries and the European Commission came together to talk about big global issues. These countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The European Commission also sent its leader.

This meeting was the 34th time these leaders had met since their first gathering in 1976. The G8 is like a special club where leaders discuss things. It's not a formal organization, but a way for them to share ideas and work together. The meeting took place in Japan, in a beautiful place called Tōyako on the northern island of Hokkaidō. The leaders met for three days, from July 7 to July 9, 2008.

Who Attended the G8 Summit?
- Other Important Guests
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Who Attended the G8 Summit?

The main people who attended the summit were the leaders of the G8 member countries. These are the "core members" of the group.

Member		Represented by	Title
Core G8 Members The country hosting the meeting and its leader are shown in bold.
	Canada	Stephen Harper	Prime Minister
	France	Nicolas Sarkozy	President
	Germany	Angela Merkel	Chancellor
	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Prime Minister
	Japan	Yasuo Fukuda	Prime Minister
	Russia	Dmitri Medvedev	President
	United Kingdom	Gordon Brown	Prime Minister
	United States	George W. Bush	President
	European Commission	Jose Manuel Barroso	President

Other Important Guests

Besides the main G8 members, other leaders were invited to join some of the discussions. These guests helped make the talks more complete and included more voices from around the world.

The G8+5 Group

Family photo of the G8+G5 leaders.

The G8 countries often invite five other big developing nations to join their talks. This group is known as the G8+5. The five additional countries are:

Brazil: Represented by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, their President.
China: Represented by Hu Jintao, their President.
India: Represented by Manmohan Singh, their Prime Minister.
Mexico: Represented by Felipe Calderón, their President.
South Africa: Represented by Thabo Mbeki, their President.

Other Invited Leaders

Many other leaders from different countries were also invited to the summit. They joined specific discussions that were important to their regions or countries. These included: