The 1997 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was the 15th

Meeting A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision making. Defini ...

of the

Heads of Government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...

of the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the C ...

. It was held in

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Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, between 24 October and 27 October 1997, and hosted by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of t ...

. It was the largest summit in modern Commonwealth history up to that point (a title to be taken from it by the 1999 CHOGM), with forty-two heads of state or government. It was also attended by Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who had recently been ousted as President of Sierra Leone. Most notable, however, was the emergence of the civil society fringe of the 'People's Commonwealth', transforming a conference of policy-makers into a cultural celebration. For this reason, most participants and commentators considered it a success. The appearance of

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

, Head of the Commonwealth, at the opening of the CHOGM was a novelty. The monarch had never appeared at a CHOGM before, and it marked the beginning of a renewed interest in the Commonwealth from the monarchy. The rest of the opening ceremony was low-key. The Edinburgh Declaration was agreed, endorsing the report of the Inter-Governmental Group on Criteria for Commonwealth Membership (IGCCM) which consolidated and revised previous rules and agreements which had developed over the previous 60 years.

Economic declaration

The CHOGM was, unlike the preceding meeting in Auckland, an unspectacular affair with regards to policy. This was a result of a large number of newcomers to CHOGM, with twenty countries having new leaders, and the consequent requirement to build new personal relationships, which was compounded by the short retreat, which lasted only a few hours, but at which most business is usually done. Chairperson

pushed for a declaration of Commonwealth economic principles to mirror the Harare Declaration of the Commonwealth's political principles of six years earlier. Whilst this was achieved, it was greatly watered-down. The British plan was presented in a sophisticated paper by

Robert Cassen Professor Robert Harvey Cassen OBE (born 1935), is a British economist and former Professor of the Economics of Development at the University of Oxford. Biography Robert Cassen was born on 24 March 1935 and educated at Bedford School, at New ...

and

David Greenaway David Greenaway may refer to: * David Greenaway (footballer) * David Greenaway (economist) Sir David Greenaway DL (born 20 March 1952, Glasgow) is a British economist. He is professor of economics and was previously the Vice-Chancellor of the ...

. The paper was rejected almost entirely.

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, which opposed the request for another global trade round, scuppered the UK's plan to call for renewed trade negotiations, arguing that

globalisation Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

should be slowed. What was agreed included the holding of a biennial Commonwealth Business Forum, the creation of a Trade and Investment Access Facility to help globalisation adjustment, and the creation of a $110m South Asia Regional Fund.

Footnotes

{{Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1997 in politics 1997 in Scotland History of Edinburgh Diplomatic conferences in the United Kingdom 20th-century diplomatic conferences 1997 in international relations 1997 conferences United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations 1990s in Edinburgh October 1997 events in the United Kingdom