[3] 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.

Following the coffee break the first meeting of the Summit, Reagan forged an agreement with the strong support of Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone of Japan, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany and Thatcher.

This decision showed the unity of Western leaders as they forged ahead to seek meaningful arms control agreements with the Soviet Union and it was a critical step in the arms control agreements reached between Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and Reagan two years later at the Geneva Summit, the first meeting between these two leaders.

These economic conditions were stimulated, in part, due to higher oil prices in the early 1980s caused by the Iranian Revolution.