Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

GROUP OF EIGHT COUNTERTERRORISM COOPERATION • 215GROUP OF EIGHT COUNTERTERRORISM COOPERATION.The Summit Eight (G8, formerly G7) group of major industrializednations, consisting of Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany,Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, and the United States, hasemerged as one of the major and most effective forums for addressingissues of terrorism, international organized crime anddrug trafficking, and regional issues of peace and conflict. Theannual forum began as an informal gathering proposed by FrenchPresident Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and met first at Rambouilletin 1975 to discuss purely economic and trade issues. Beginningin 1978 the group began to address political issues, in particular,common concerns about terrorism, which initiated increased andmore effective counterterrorism cooperation among these nations.Summit declarations concerning international terrorism and proposalsfor joint actions to counter such terrorism were given in Bonnin 1978, Tokyo in 1979, Venice in 1980, Ottawa in 1981, Londonin 1984, Tokyo in 1986, Venice in 1987, Paris in 1989, Houstonin 1990, and Lyons and Paris in 1996. Following the inclusion ofRussia in this forum, terrorism was dealt with, among other things,in the communiqués issued at the summits in Denver in 1997 andBirmingham in 1998 and at a counterterrorism conference in Berlinon 17–18 November 1999.The Bonn meeting declaration of 1978 announced the intentionsof the seven governments “to intensify their joint efforts to combatintentional terrorism,” and specifically addressed the problem of hijacking.The declaration indicated that these nations would imposean aviation boycott on any such nation that refused extradition orprosecution of hijackers or that refused to return hijacked aircraft. Inthe Tokyo declaration of 1986, these measures were extended to dealwith all forms of terrorism affecting civil aviation.Following the takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and theseizure of its diplomats as hostages, the Venice declaration of 1980focused on attacks on diplomats and consular premises and personneland resolved that each state would “provide to one another’sdiplomatic and consular missions support and assistance” in suchsituations. The London declaration of 1984 and the Tokyo declarationof 1986 were primarily directed toward ending the abuse ofdiplomatic immunity for sponsoring terrorism and were particularlydirected at Libya, whose diplomats had used their office in