9 June 2020, NIICE Commentary 5285
Marie Pegu
The G7 summit which was going to be held this year from 10-12 June in Camp David, United States, is in news again as the US President Donald Trump mentions the summit has been postponed until September with Trump stating, “it’s a very outdated group of countries” and wishes to invite other countries to participate in the summit. The Group of Seven (G7) is an international economic organization consisting of seven countries; Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the US. Russia’s expulsion after the Crimean annexation in March 2014 reformatted G8 to G7. Since then, the US President Trump talked about the plans to invite Russia along with South Korea, Australia and India for the meeting scheduled in September. Furthermore, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel’s rejected the US invitation to attend an in-person meeting regarding the situation of the pandemic, while the UK’s Boris Johnson responded in favor of convening the G7 in person in future.
However it is interesting to note that Trump’s invitation to Russia has not been well received by the other G7 members mainly the UK and Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau opposes Russian readmission into G7 saying, “Russia’s continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms is why it remains outside of the G7 and it will continue to remain out”. Likewise, the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson says it would veto any proposal of Russia’s rejoining of G7. Boris Johnson’s spokesperson stated that they are not in favor of Russia’s entry into the G7 group and will admit it only if it refrains from its “aggressive and destabilizing activity”. The G7 which calls itself as “a community of values” having certain key principles of freedom, human rights, democracy, and rule of law including prosperity and sustainable development seems to have growing differences among its member countries in recent times. For example, in the June 2018 G7 summit held in Quebec, Canada there were many disagreements over trade and tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, the EU and Mexico, and the US president even called out the Canadian PM Trudeau as, “meek and mild”. Trudeau called out the statement “insulting” in response. One can say Trump’s “America First” and its various trade and economic policies too can be causing increasing rift within the group members.
Evolution of the G7
The G7 is a multilateral body that was formed in 1975 among the world’s most developed economies of the world. France, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and West Germany were the original founding members. It was originally an alliance of only democratic countries. Later on, Russia joined the Group in 1998. The Group of Seven accounts for 40 percent of the World’s GDP and represents 10 percent of the World’s population. The G7 had its origins when OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil embargo in 1973 led to an inflation and recession and the powers of the world decided to come together and discuss about the pressing economic matters of the time.
The G7 summit that meets every year to discuss issues ranging from global governance, climate change, security and economy ended in a disarray during the 44th Summit held at La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada as the US President decided to pull out of the Paris Climate Change Accord. Despite advice from its European allies, the US also pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal in May 2018. Trump expressed, “I don’t feel that as a G7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world” in regards to adding more nations to the G7, but this is a reflection of the growing differences within the G7.
Keeping in mind the US President’s plan of expansion of the G7 of including India, he had a positive conversation with India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. India’s growing economy, which s fifth largest in the world, is a reason why it carries immense geopolitical importance to the US. Many experts believe that this is a part of the US counter strategy to contain China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific. India’s response is moved by a strategic action to send signals of a G7 expansion and to strengthen India-US relations with increasing border dispute with China. Few commentators also believe that the American President’s move of expanding the G7 is ill fated and would fail due to the fact that the US can send an invite to any country since they are hosting the G7 summit this year. Regardless of the invite, a proposal of permanent expansion of G7 into G-10 or G-11 needs the approval of other members as well. With Canada and the UK already rejecting Trump’s proposal of inviting Russia, it raises a whole new question about the future structure of the G7 and whether it continues to consist of the most advanced economies of the world. With newly emerging economies, there have been changes in the world economically, and the impact can be seen in the Group of Seven as well.
Way Ahead
Just as Trump’s proposal of expanding the group might look welcoming for Australia, India and South Korea, leaving out China may clearly contradict the original purpose of founding the G7 in 1975. To exclude China, the world’s second largest economy from the Group of Seven membership won’t be serving the original purpose of its formation. With the world reeling under COVID-19 crisis with an economic slowdown, there are tensions escalating between the India-China and the US-China relations. In such circumstances, excluding China will only widen the rift between the global powers. On the contrary, China’s presence in the G7 will provide an arena where major economic powers can come together to discuss, cooperate as well as disagree.
