§ Ms DrownTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the dates of the preparatory meetings of officials for the Okinawa G8 Summit in July. [109529]
§ Mr. HainSo far there have been two meetings of senior officials to prepare for the Okinawa Summit. G8 Heads' Representatives met on 23–24 January and Foreign Ministry officials met on 5–6 February. Between now and the Summit there will be further meetings of these and Finance Ministry officials to prepare the Summit agenda. In addition there are a number of expert level groups looking at different issues on the G8 agenda such as Nuclear Safety and Non-Proliferation. The Japanese Presidency of the G8 has not publicised the dates yet.
Meetings of Education, Environment, Finance and Foreign Ministers have also been arranged in advance of the Summit (on 1–2 April, 7–9 April, 8 July and 12–13 July respectively).
G7/8 2000 calendar Date January 22 Finance Ministers' Meeting (G7) Tokyo, Japan 23–24 Sherpa Meeting Kyoto, Japan February 5–6 Foreign Affairs' Sous-Sherpa Meeting Nara, Japan 9 Education Ministers' Preparatory Meeting Tokyo, Japan 28–29 Political Directors' Meeting Kyoto, Japan March 4 Finance Sous-Sherpa Meeting Kyoto, Japan 11–12 Foreign Affairs' Sous-Sherpa Meeting Karuizawa, Japan April 1–2 Education Ministers' Meeting Tokyo, Japan 4–5 Sherpa Meeting Ireland 7–9 G8 Environment Ministers' Meeting Japan 15 Finance Ministers' Meeting Washington DC May 15 Finance Sous-Sherpa Meeting Karuizawa, Japan 15–16 Sherpa Meeting Karuizawa, Japan 27–28 Political Directors' Meeting Miyazaki, Japan 28–29 Foreign Affairs' Sous-Sherpa Meeting Miyazaki, Japan June 17 Finance Sous-Sherpa Meeting Fukuoka, Japan 29–1 Plenary Sherpa Meeting Okinawa, Japan July 8 Finance Ministers Meeting Fukuoka, Japan 12–13 Foreign Ministers' Meeting Miyazaki, Japan 21–23 G7/8 Annual Summit Okinawa, Japan