[4] The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and West Germany's chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the first Group of Six (G6) summit in 1975.

As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions.

[5] Coming amidst the "second oil shock" caused by the Iranian Revolution, the summit became devoted to the problem of energy, according to historian Daniel Yergin.

US President Jimmy Carter stated that West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt "got personally abusive toward me ....

He alleged that American interference in the Middle East trying to work for a peace treaty was what had cause the problems with oil all over the world.