ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the later summits, anticipating the narratives. It treats separately each of the two main issues - financial architecture and debt relief. After a brief review of early treatment by the G7 summits, the chapter examines the achievements of Birmingham, Cologne and later summits in greater detail. The Halifax reforms scored highly on leadership, solidarity and acceptability. But later developments showed that they were neither effective nor durable. The Asian financial crisis began on 3 July 1997, when the Thai authorities were no longer able to defend the parity of the baht against the dollar. The crisis spread rapidly to the other economies of the region. The entire International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank then adopted these proposals as the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative. The Cologne Debt Initiative was set out in the G7 statement by the leaders and a supporting report by G7 finance ministers.
