LONDON — When then-French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing organized the first meeting of world leaders in the form of the Group of Seven in 1975, the idea was that they would conduct a relaxed private dialogue about settling major problems facing the world, with the emphasis on joint economic programs.
In the following half-dozen years, the meetings brought forth agreements on monetary reform and economic-policy coordination underpinned by the relationships of trust built up between such leaders as Giscard, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
The latest summit of the now enlarged Group of Eight in France last week presented a very different picture. Instead of the private deliberations that offered prospects of reaching mutual agreement in an informal setting, the summits have become tightly choreographed stages for world leaders to set out their positions with little regard for one another or for the crowds of demonstrators the occasions now attract.