Group of Seven

The Group of Seven (G7) is an international intergovernmental economic organization consisting of seven major developed countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, which are the largest IMF-advanced economies in the world.[1]

This article is about the group of seven major advanced nations. For other uses, see Group of Seven (disambiguation).

"G7" redirects here. For other uses, see G7 (disambiguation).

Group of Seven and the European Union

The G7-nations (blue) and the European Union (teal) in the world  Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  France President Emmanuel Macron  Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel  Italy Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte  Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe  United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson  United States (2020 host) President Donald Trump  European Union Council President Charles Michel Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

As of 2018, the seven countries involved represent 58% of the global net wealth ($317 trillion)[2] and more than 46% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) based on nominal values, and more than 32% of the global GDP based on purchasing power parity.[3] The European Union is an invitee to G7.

The annual G7 Summit includes the 7 heads-of-government from these 7 countries.

History

Flags of G7 members as seen on University Avenue in Toronto

G7 leaders during the 2014 emergency meeting about the Russian annexation of Crimea, hosted by the Netherlands

The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialized countries emerged before the 1973 oil crisis. On Sunday, 25 March 1973, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, George Shultz, convened an informal gathering of finance ministers from West Germany Helmut Schmidt, France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, and the United Kingdom Anthony Barber before an upcoming meeting in Washington, D.C. When running the idea past President Nixon, he noted that he would be out of town and offered use of the White House. The meeting was subsequently held in the library on the ground floor.[4] Taking their name from the setting, this original group of four became known as the "Library Group".[5] In mid-1973, at the World Bank-IMF meetings, Shultz proposed the addition of Japan to the original four nations, who agreed.[4] The informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan, and France became known as the "Group of Five".[6]

Then, in 1974, President Pompidou of France died and his immediate successor refused to run in the special election, making two changes of head of state in France in one year. Chancellor Brandt of West Germany was forced to resign in a scandal, and his successor lasted only nine days making two changes in West Germany as well. In addition, then-President of the United States Richard Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka were forced to resign in disgrace. Queen Elizabeth II was forced to broker a deal to form a government after a hung election, which was so unstable that another election the same year had to take place, and finally, the traditionally unstable government of the 1st Italian Republic changed Prime Ministers yet again. The new American President Gerald Ford, asked some other new heads of state/government to hold a retreat the following year to get to know one another.

In 1975, a summit hosted by France brought together representatives of six governments: France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Schmidt was head of government and Giscard d'Estaing head of state, respectively, in their respective countries, and since they both spoke fluent English, it occurred to them that they, and British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and U.S. President Gerald Ford could get together in an informal retreat and discuss election results and the issues of the day. In late spring, d'Estaing of France invited the heads of government from West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to a summit in Château de Rambouillet;[7] the annual meeting of the six leaders was organized under a rotating presidency, forming the Group of Six (G6). In 1976, with Wilson out as prime minister of Britain, Schmidt and Gerald Ford felt an English speaker with more experience was needed, so Pierre Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, the next largest advanced economy after the first six, was invited to join the group[8] and the group became the Group of Seven (G7).[7] Since first invited by the United Kingdom in 1977, the European Union has been represented by the president of the European Commission and the leader of the country that holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union;[9] the Council President now also regularly attends.

Until the 1985 Plaza Accord no one outside a tight official circle knew when the seven finance ministers met or what they agreed upon. The summit was announced the day before and a communiqué was issued afterwards.[10]

Following 1994's G7 summit in Naples, Russian officials held separate meetings with leaders of the G7 after the group's summits. This informal arrangement was dubbed the Political 8 (P8) – or, colloquially, the G7+1. At the invitation of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair and President of the United States Bill Clinton,[11] Russian President Boris Yeltsin was invited first as a guest observer, later as a full participant. After the 1997 meeting Russia was formally invited to the next meeting and formally joined the group in 1998, resulting in a new governmental political forum, the Group of Eight or G8.[7] The Russian Federation, in fact, had and has limited net national wealth and financial weight compared to the other members of the G8. Russia also has never been a major advanced economy according to the IMF.[12][13] However, the Russian Federation was ejected from the G8 political forum in March 2014, following the Russian annexation of Crimea.[14]

In 2020, US President Donald Trump advocated that Russia should be invited to re-join the group and invite Australia, India and South Korea to join.[15]

Early function

This organization was founded to facilitate shared macroeconomic initiatives by its members in response to the collapse of the exchange rate 1971, during the time of the Nixon shock, the 1970s energy crisis and the ensuing recession.[16]

Work

1st

3rd, 10th, 17th

4th, 11th

6th, 13th

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15th

18th

20th

22nd

24th

25th

27th

29th

31st

32nd

33rd

35th

37th

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41st

43rd'

45th

Host venues of G7 summits in Europe

2nd

7th

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23rd

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30th

36th

38th

44th

Host venues of G7 summits in North America

5th, 12th, 19th

26th

34th

42nd

Host venues of G7 summits in Japan

Since 1975, the group meets annually on summit site to discuss economic policies; since 1987, the G7 Finance Ministers have met at least semi-annually, up to four times a year at stand-alone meetings.[17]

In 1996, the G7 launched an initiative for the 42 heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC).[18]

In 1997, the G7 provided $300 million to the effort to build the containment of the reactor meltdown at Chernobyl.[19]

In 1999, the G7 decided to get more directly involved in "managing the international monetary system" through the Financial Stability Forum, formed earlier in 1999 and the G-20, established following the summit, to "promote dialogue between major industrial and emerging market countries".[20] The G7 also announced their plan to cancel 90% of bilateral, and multilateral debt for the HIPC, totaling $100 billion. In 2005 the G7 announced debt reductions of "up to 100%" to be negotiated on a "case by case" basis.[21]

In 2008 the G7 met twice in Washington, D.C. to discuss the global financial crisis of 2007–2008[22] and in February 2009 in Rome.[23][24] The group of finance ministers pledged to take "all necessary steps" to stem the crisis.[25]

On 2 March 2014, the G7 condemned the "Russian Federation's violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine."[26] The G7 stated "that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remains the institution best prepared to help Ukraine address its immediate economic challenges through policy advice and financing, conditioned on needed reforms", and that the G7 was "committed to mobilize rapid technical assistance to support Ukraine in addressing its macroeconomic, regulatory and anti-corruption challenges."[26] On 24 March 2014, the G7 convened an emergency meeting in response to the Russian Federation's annexation of Crimea at the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, the Catshuis in The Hague. This location was chosen because all G7 leaders were already present to attend the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit hosted by the Netherlands. This was the first G7 meeting neither taking place in a member nation nor having the host leader participating in the meeting.[27] On 4 June 2014 leaders at the G7 summit in Brussels, condemned Moscow for its "continuing violation" of Ukraine's sovereignty, in their joint statement and stated they were prepared to impose further sanctions on Russia.[28] This meeting was the first since Russia was expelled from the G8 following its annexation of Crimea in March.[28]

The annual G7 leaders' summit is attended by the heads of government.[29] The member country holding the G7 presidency is responsible for organizing and hosting the year's summit. The serial annual summits can be parsed chronologically in arguably distinct ways, including as the sequence of host countries for the summits has recurred over time and series.[30] Generally every country hosts the summit once every 7 years.[31]

List of summits

#	Date	Host	Host figure	Location held	Notes	Website	References
1st	15–17 November 1975	France	Valéry Giscard d'Estaing	Château de Rambouillet, District of the Paris Region	G6 Summit
2nd	27–28 June 1976	United States	Gerald R. Ford	Dorado, Puerto Rico[32]	Also called "Rambouillet II". Canada joined the group, forming the G7.[32]
3rd	7–8 May 1977	United Kingdom	James Callaghan	London, England	The President of the European Commission was invited to join the annual G7 summits.
4th	16–17 July 1978	West Germany	Helmut Schmidt	Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia
5th	28–29 June 1979	Japan	Masayoshi Ōhira	Tokyo
6th	22–23 June 1980	Italy	Francesco Cossiga	Venice, Veneto	Prime Minister Ōhira died in office on 12 June; Foreign Minister Saburō Ōkita led the delegation that represented Japan.
7th	20–21 July 1981	Canada	Pierre E. Trudeau	Montebello, Québec
8th	4–6 June 1982	France	François Mitterrand	Versailles, Île-de-France
9th	28–30 May 1983	United States	Ronald Reagan	Williamsburg, Virginia
10th	7–9 June 1984	United Kingdom	Margaret Thatcher	London, England
11th	2–4 May 1985	West Germany	Helmut Kohl	Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia
12th	4–6 May 1986	Japan	Yasuhiro Nakasone	Tokyo
13th	8–10 June 1987	Italy	Amintore Fanfani	Venice, Veneto
14th	19–21 June 1988	Canada	Brian Mulroney	Toronto, Ontario
15th	14–16 July 1989	France	François Mitterrand	Paris, Île-de-France
16th	9–11 July 1990	United States	George H. W. Bush	Houston, Texas
17th	15–17 July 1991	United Kingdom	John Major	London, England
18th	6–8 July 1992	Germany	Helmut Kohl	Munich, Bavaria
19th	7–9 July 1993	Japan	Kiichi Miyazawa	Tokyo
20th	8–10 July 1994	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Naples, Campania
21st	15–17 June 1995	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Halifax, Nova Scotia			[33]
22nd	27–29 June 1996	France	Jacques Chirac	Lyon, Rhône-Alpes	International organizations' debut to G7 Summits periodically. The invited ones here were: United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.[34]
23rd	20–22 June 1997	United States	Bill Clinton	Denver, Colorado	Russia joins the group, forming G8.		[35]
24th	15–17 May 1998	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Birmingham, West Midlands			[36]
25th	18–20 June 1999	Germany	Gerhard Schröder	Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia	First Summit of the G-20 major economies at Berlin.		[37]
26th	21–23 July 2000	Japan	Yoshirō Mori	Nago, Okinawa	Formation of the G8+5 starts, when South Africa was invited. Until the 38th G8 summit in 2012, it has been invited to the Summit annually without interruption. Also, with permission from a G8 leader, other nations were invited to the Summit on a periodical basis for the first time. Nigeria, Algeria and Senegal accepted their invitations here. The World Health Organization was also invited for the first time.[34]		[38]
27th	21–22 July 2001	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	Genoa, Liguria	Leaders from Bangladesh, Mali and El Salvador accepted their invitations here.[34] Demonstrator Carlo Giuliani is shot and killed by the Carabinieri during a violent demonstration. One of the largest and most violent anti-globalization movement protests occurred for the 27th G8 summit.[39] Following those events and the September 11 attacks two months later in 2001, the G8 have met at more remote locations.		[40]
28th	26–27 June 2002	Canada	Jean Chrétien	Kananaskis, Alberta	Russia gains permission to officially host a G8 Summit.		[41]
29th	1–3 June 2003	France	Jacques Chirac	Évian-les-Bains, Rhône-Alpes	The G8+5 was unofficially made, when China, India, Brazil, and Mexico were invited to this Summit for the first time. South Africa has joined the G8 Summit, since 2000, until the 2012 edition. Other first-time nations that were invited by the French president included: Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Switzerland.[34]
30th	8–10 June 2004	United States	George W. Bush	Sea Island, Georgia	A record number of leaders from 12 different nations accepted their invitations here. Amongst a couple of veteran nations, the others were: Ghana, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Yemen and Uganda.[34] Also, the state funeral of former President Ronald Reagan took place in Washington during the summit. All of G8 participants attended this funeral, along with 20 more heads of state.		[42]
31st	6–8 July 2005	United Kingdom	Tony Blair	Gleneagles, Scotland	The G8+5 was officially formed. On the second day of the meeting, suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London Underground and a bus. Nations that were invited for the first time were Ethiopia and Tanzania. The African Union and the International Energy Agency made their debut here.[34] During the 31st G8 summit in United Kingdom, 225,000 people took to the streets of Edinburgh as part of the Make Poverty History campaign calling for Trade Justice, Debt Relief and Better Aid. Numerous other demonstrations also took place challenging the legitimacy of the G8.[43]		[44]
32nd	15–17 July 2006	Russia (only G8 member, not G7)[12]	Vladimir Putin	Strelna, Saint Petersburg	First G8 Summit on Russian Federation soil. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNESCO made their debut here.[34]
33rd	6–8 June 2007	Germany	Angela Merkel	Heiligendamm, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	Seven different international organizations accepted their invitations to this Summit. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Commonwealth of Independent States made their debut here.[34]
34th	7–9 July 2008	Japan	Yasuo Fukuda	Tōyako, Hokkaidō	Nations that accepted their G8 Summit invitations for the first time are: Australia, Indonesia and South Korea.[34]		[45]
35th	8–10 July 2009	Italy	Silvio Berlusconi	La Maddalena, Sardinia (cancelled) L'Aquila, Abruzzo (re-located)[46]	This G8 Summit was originally planned to be in La Maddalena (Sardinia), but was moved to L'Aquila as a way of showing Prime Minister Berlusconi's desire to help the region after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake. It was the most heavily attended summit in the history of the group (with 15 invited countries). Nations that accepted their invitations for the first time were: Angola, Denmark, Netherlands and Spain.[47] Also, a record of 11 international organizations were represented in this G8 Summit. For the first time, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, and the International Labour Organization accepted their invitations.[48]		[49]
36th	25–26 June 2010[50]	Canada	Stephen Harper	Huntsville, Ontario[51]	Malawi, Colombia, Haiti, and Jamaica accepted their invitations for the first time.[52]		[53]
37th	26–27 May 2011	France	Nicolas Sarkozy	Deauville,[54][55] Lower Normandy	Guinea, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire and Tunisia accepted their invitations for the first time. Also, the League of Arab States made its debut to the meeting.[56]
38th	18–19 May 2012	United States	Barack Obama	Chicago, Illinois (cancelled) Camp David, Maryland (re-located)[57]	The summit was originally planned for Chicago, along with the NATO summit, but it was announced officially on 5 March 2012, that the G8 summit will be held at the more private location of Camp David and at one day earlier than previously scheduled.[58] Also, this is the second G8 summit, in which one of the leaders, Vladimir Putin, declined to participate. This G8 summit concentrated on the core leaders only; no non-G8 leaders or international organizations were invited.
39th	17–18 June 2013	United Kingdom	David Cameron	Lough Erne, County Fermanagh[59]	As in 2012, only the core members of the G8 attended this meeting. The four main topics that were discussed here were trade, government transparency, tackling tax evasion, and the ongoing Syrian crisis.[60]		[61]
40th	4–5 June 2014	European Union	Herman Van Rompuy José Manuel Barroso	Brussels, Belgium (re-located from Sochi, Russia)	G7 summit as an alternative meeting without Russia in 2014 due to association with Crimean crisis.[62] The 2014 G8 summit in Sochi was cancelled and re-located to Brussels, Belgium without Russia.[63] Emergency meeting in March 2014 in The Hague.
41st	7–8 June 2015	Germany	Angela Merkel	Schloss Elmau, Bavaria[64]	Summit dedicated to focus on the global economy as well as on key issues regarding foreign, security and development policy.[65] The Global Apollo Programme was also on the agenda.[66]
42nd	26–27 May 2016[67][68]	Japan	Shinzō Abe	Shima, Mie Prefecture[69]	The G7 leaders aim to address challenges affecting the growth of the world economy, like slowdowns in emerging markets and drops in price of oil. The G7 also issued a warning to the United Kingdom that "a UK exit from the EU would reverse the trend towards greater global trade and investment, and the jobs they create and is a further serious risk to growth".[70] Commitment to an EU–Japan Free Trade Agreement.
43rd	26–27 May 2017[71]	Italy	Paolo Gentiloni	Taormina, Sicily[72]	G7 leaders emphasized common endeavours: to end the Syrian crisis, to fulfill the UN mission in Libya and reducing the presence of ISIS, ISIL and Da'esh in Syria and Iraq. North Korea was urged to comply with UN resolutions, Russian responsibility was stressed for Ukrainian conflict. Supporting economic activity and ensuring price stability was demanded while inequalities in trade and gender were called to be challenged. It was agreed to help countries in creating conditions that address the drivers of migration: ending hunger, increasing competitiveness and advancing global health security.[73]
44th	8–9 June 2018	Canada[74]	Justin Trudeau	La Malbaie, Québec	It took place at the Manoir Richelieu. Prime Minister Trudeau announced five themes for Canada's G7 presidency which began in January 2018. Climate, along with commerce trades, was one of the main themes. “Working together on climate change, oceans and clean energy”.[75] The G7 members' final statement contains 28 points. US President Donald Trump did not agree to the economic section of the final statement.[76] The G7 members also announced to recall sanctions and to be ready to take further restrictive measures against Russian Federation for the failure of Minsk Agreement's complete implementation.[77]
45th	24–26 August 2019	France[78]	Emmanuel Macron	Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine	It was agreed at the summit that the World Trade Organization, "with regard to intellectual property protection, to settle disputes more swiftly and to eliminate unfair trade practices", "to simplify regulatory barriers and modernize international taxation within the framework of the OECD", "to ensure that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons and to foster peace and stability in the region.", "to support a truce in Libya that will lead to a long-term ceasefire" and addressed the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests.[79][80][81][82]
46th	10–12 June 2020	United States (original host)[78] None	Donald Trump (original host figure)	Camp David, Maryland (cancelled) Worldwide videoconference (replaced)	This meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Camp David, Maryland, but that meeting was officially cancelled on March 19, 2020 due to the concerns over the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and was replaced by a global videoconference.[83]
47th	TBD, 2021	United Kingdom[84]	Boris Johnson	TBD
48th	TBD, 2022	Germany[84]	TBD	TBD
49th	TBD, 2023	Japan[84]	TBD	TBD
50th	TBD, 2024	Italy[84]	TBD	TBD

Current leaders

Member	Representative(s)		Minister of Finance		Central Bank Governor
Canada	Prime Minister	Justin Trudeau	Minister of Finance	Bill Morneau	Stephen Poloz
France	President	Emmanuel Macron	Minister of the Economy	Bruno Le Maire	François Villeroy de Galhau
Germany	Chancellor	Angela Merkel	Minister of Finance	Olaf Scholz	Jens Weidmann
Italy	Prime Minister	Giuseppe Conte	Minister of Economy and Finance	Roberto Gualtieri	Ignazio Visco
Japan	Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe	Minister of Finance	Tarō Asō	Haruhiko Kuroda
United Kingdom	Prime Minister	Boris Johnson	Chancellor of the Exchequer	Rishi Sunak	Andrew Bailey
United States	President	Donald Trump	Secretary of the Treasury	Steven Mnuchin	Jerome Powell
European Union	Council President[85]	Charles Michel	Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro	Valdis Dombrovskis	Christine Lagarde
	Commission President[85]	Ursula Von Der Leyen

Country leaders and EU representatives (as of 2020)

• 
  Canada
  Justin Trudeau,
  Prime Minister
• 
  France
  Emmanuel Macron,
  President
• 
  Germany
  Angela Merkel,
  Chancellor
• 
  Italy
  Giuseppe Conte,
  Prime Minister
• 
  Japan
  Shinzō Abe,
  Prime Minister
• 
  United Kingdom
  Boris Johnson,
  Prime Minister
• 
  United States
  Donald Trump,
  President
• 
  European Union
  Charles Michel,
  President of the
  European Council
• 
  European Union
  Ursula von der Leyen,
  President of the
  European Commission

Member country data

Member	Trade mil. USD (2014)	Nom. GDP mil. USD (2014)[86]	PPP GDP mil. USD (2014)[86]	Nom. GDP per capita USD (2014)[86]	PPP GDP per capita USD (2014)[86]	HDI (2017)	Population (2014)	Permanent members of UN Security Council	DAC	OECD	Economic classification (IMF)[87]
Canada	947,200	1,785,387	1,595,975	50,304	44,967	0.926	35,467,000	N	Y	Y	Advanced
France	1,212,300	2,833,687	2,591,170	44,332	40,538	0.901	63,951,000	Y	Y	Y	Advanced
Germany	2,866,600	3,874,437	3,748,094	47,774	46,216	0.936	80,940,000	N	Y	Y	Advanced
Italy	948,600	2,167,744	2,135,359	35,335	35,131	0.880	60,665,551	N	Y	Y	Advanced
Japan	1,522,400	4,602,367	4,767,157	36,222	37,519	0.909	127,061,000	N	Y	Y	Advanced
United Kingdom	1,189,400	2,950,039	2,569,218	45,729	39,826	0.922	64,511,000	Y	Y	Y	Advanced
United States	3,944,000	17,348,075	17,348,075	54,370	54,370	0.924	318,523,000	Y	Y	Y	Advanced
European Union	4,485,000	18,527,116	18,640,411	36,645	36,869	0.899	505,570,700	N/A	Y	N/A	Emerging and Developing/Advanced[88]

The G7 is composed of the seven wealthiest advanced countries. The People's Republic of China, according to its data, would be the second-largest with 16.4% of the world net wealth,[2] but is excluded because the IMF and other main global institutions do not consider China an advanced country and because of its relatively low net wealth per adult and HDI.[89][12] As of 2017 Crédit Suisse reports the G7 (without the European Union) represents above 62% of the global net wealth.[90] Including the EU the G7 represents over 70% of the global net wealth.[91]

Member facts

• 7 of the 7 top-ranked advanced economies with the current largest GDP and with the highest national wealth (United States, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada).[92]
• 7 of the 15 top-ranked countries with the highest net wealth per capita (United States, France, Japan, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Germany).
• 7 of 10 top-ranked leading export countries.[93]
• 5 of 10 top-ranked countries with the largest gold reserves (United States, Germany, Italy, France, Japan).
• 7 of 10 top-ranked economies (by nominal GDP), according to latest (2016 data) International Monetary Fund's statistics.
• 3 countries with a nominal GDP per capita above US$40,000 (United States, Canada, Germany).
• 4 countries with a sovereign wealth fund, administered by either a national or a state/provincial government (United States, France, Canada, Italy).[94]
• 7 of 30 top-ranked nations with large amounts of foreign-exchange reserves in their central banks.
• 3 out of 9 countries having nuclear weapons (France, UK, United States),[95][96] plus 2 countries that have nuclear weapon sharing programs (Germany, Italy).[97][98]
• all 5 of the members of the NATO Quint (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy) and Canada is also member of Five Eyes intelligence gathering body with U.S. and U.K.
• 6 of the 9 largest nuclear energy producers (United States, France, Japan, Germany, Canada, UK), although Germany announced in 2011 that it will close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022.[99] Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors.[100] However, Japan restarted several nuclear reactors, with the refueling of other reactors underway.
• 7 of the 10 top donors to the UN budget for the 2016 annual fiscal year.
• 5 countries with an HDI index for 2018 of 0.9 and higher (United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan).
• 2 countries with the highest credit rating from Standard & Poor's, Fitch, and Moody's at the same time (Canada and Germany).[101]
• 3 countries are constitutional monarchies (United Kingdom, Canada, Japan), 2 are presidential republics (France, United States) and 2 are parliamentary republics (Germany and Italy).

Special invitations

French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of the G7 summit held in Biarritz in August 2019, has also invited non-member countries. The invited guest nations include Australia, Chile, Egypt, India, Iran, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Spain.[102]

Controversy

2014 suspension and subsequent exclusion of Russia

Further information: 40th G7 summit

In March 2014 Russia was suspended by G7 members from the political forum G8 following the annexation of Crimea. After the suspension, on January 2017 the Russian Federation decided permanently to leave the G8. It was confirmed in June 2018.[103][104][105][106][107]

2015 protests

Further information: 41st G7 summit

About 7,500 protesters led by the group 'Stop-G7' demonstrated during the summit. About 300 of those managed to reach the 3 m high and 7 km long security fence surrounding the summit location despite Germany's immense efforts to prevent it and despite its remote location – the luxury hotel Schloss Elmau at the foot of the Wetterstein mountains (altitude of 1,008 m (3,307 ft) above sea level). The protesters questioned the legitimacy of the G7 to make decisions that could affect the whole world. Authorities had banned demonstrations in the closer area of the summit location and 20,000 policemen were on duty in Southern Bavaria to keep activists and protesters from interfering with the summit.[108][109]

2018 Trump conflict over tariffs and Russia

Further information: 44th G7 summit and Russian military intervention in Ukraine (2014–present)

The 2018 meeting in Charlevoix, Canada, was marred by fractious negotiations concerning tariffs and Donald Trump's position that Russia should be reinstated to the G7. The Trump administration had just imposed steel and aluminum tariffs on many countries, including European countries that are fellow members of the G7, and Canada, the host country for the 2018 meeting. Trump expressed dismay at Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau for holding a press conference in which Canada restated its position on tariffs (a public criticism of Trump's economic policy), and directed his representatives at the meeting to not sign the economic section of the joint communiqué that is typically issued at the conclusion of the meeting. German Chancellor Angela Merkel described Trump's behavior as a "depressing withdrawal," while French President Emmanuel Macron invited him "to be serious."[110] In the final statement signed by all members except the US, G7 announced its intention to recall sanctions and to be ready to take further restrictive measures within the next months against the Russian Federation for its failure to completely implement the Minsk Agreement.[77]

Trump repeated calls for Russia to be re-admitted to the group in the 2019 meeting in Biarritz, saying it should be included in discussions relating to Iran, Syria, and North Korea. The Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte supported Trump's proposal, Shinzo Abe of Japan was neutral, and the rest of the G7 pushed back against the suggestion, after which the atmosphere allegedly became "tense".

2019 Amazon rainforest fires and Brazil

Further information: 45th G7 summit and 2019 Brazil wildfires

U.S. President Donald Trump's reiteration of Russia's readmission to the group (see above), instigation of a trade war with China, increased tensions in Iran, Trump's alleged reluctance to attend the conference and a number of international crises made the 2019 G7 meeting in Biarritz, France the most divided since its inception. Following Trump's previous rescinding of his signature to a joint communiqué agreed in 2018 due to an alleged slight from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (see above), French President Emmanuel Macron agreed that the group would not issue a joint communiqué at the Biarritz conference.[111]

The G7 nations pledged US$20 million to help Brazil and other countries in South America to fight the wildfires. This money was welcomed, although many critics saw the measure as being too little, too late.[112] Macron threatened to block a major trade deal between European Union and Brazil (Mercosur) that would benefit the very agricultural interests accused of driving deforestation.[113]

See also

• Big Four (Western Europe)
• NATO Quint
• Group of Eight
• Group of Ten (economics)
• G10 currencies
• G20
• Group of Thirty
• Developed country
• List of country groupings
• List of multilateral free-trade agreements

References

1. "World Economic Outlook Database". International Monetary Fund. imf.org. October 2017. Major Advanced Economies (G7).
2. Research Institute – Global Wealth Databook 2018
3. "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". www.imf.org.
4. Shultz, George P. (1993). Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State. p. 148. ISBN 0-684-19325-6.
5. Bayne, Nicholas; Putnam, Robert D. (2000). Hanging in There. Ashgate Pub Ltd. 230 pages. ISBN 075461185X. p. 20.
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External links

• G7/8 Information Centre – University of Toronto