G7
The Group of Seven is an intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union is a "non-enumerated member". It is organized around shared values of pluralism, liberal democracy, and representative government. G7 members are major IMF advanced economies.
Originating from an ad hoc gathering of finance ministers in 1973, the G7 has since become a formal, high-profile venue for discussing and coordinating solutions to major global issues, especially in the areas of trade, security, economics, and climate change. Each member's head of government or state, along with the EU's Commission president and European Council president, meet annually at the G7 Summit; other high-ranking officials of the G7 and the EU meet throughout the year. Representatives of other states and international organizations are often invited as guests, with Russia having been a formal member from 1997 until its expulsion in 2014.
The G7 is not based on a treaty and has no permanent secretariat or office. It is organized through a presidency that rotates annually among the member states, with the presiding state setting the group's priorities and hosting the summit; Canada presides for 2025. While lacking a legal or institutional basis, the G7 is widely considered to wield significant international influence; it has catalyzed or spearheaded several major global initiatives, including efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, provide financial aid to developing countries, and address climate change through the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, the group has been criticized by observers for its allegedly outdated and limited membership, narrow global representation, and inefficacy. The rise of BRICS+ for example, with its expanded membership and focus on South-South cooperation, reflects a broader shift in global power dynamics, with emerging economies gaining greater influence in international affairs.
The G7 countries have together a population of about 780 million people, comprise around 50% of worldwide nominal net wealth and as of 2024 more than 44% of world nominal GDP and about 30% of world GDP by purchasing power parity.
History
Origins
The concept of a forum for the capitalist world's major industrialized countries emerged before the 1973 oil crisis. On 25 March 1973, the United States secretary of the treasury, George Shultz, convened an informal gathering of finance ministers from West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom before an upcoming meeting in Washington, DC. United States president Richard Nixon offered the White House as a venue, and the meeting was subsequently held in its library on the ground floor; the original group of four consequently became known as the "Library Group". In mid-1973, at the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, Shultz proposed the addition of Japan, which all members accepted. The informal gathering of senior financial officials from the United States, United Kingdom, West Germany, Japan, and France became known as the "Group of Five".In 1974, all five members endured sudden and often troubled changes in leadership. French president Georges Pompidou abruptly died, leading to a fresh presidential election that was closely won by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. West German chancellor Willy Brandt, American president Richard Nixon, and Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka all resigned due to scandals. In the United Kingdom, a hung election led to a minority government whose subsequent instability prompted another election the same year. Consequently, Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, proposed a retreat the following year for the group's new leaders to learn about one another.
First summit and expansion
At the initiative of Giscard d'Estaing and his German counterpart, Helmut Schmidt, France hosted a three-day summit in November 1975, inviting the Group of Five plus Italy, forming the "Group of Six". Taking place at the Château de Rambouillet, the meeting focused on several major economic issues, including the oil crisis, the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, and the ongoing global recession. The result was the 15-point "Declaration of Rambouillet", which, among other positions, announced the group's united commitment to promoting free trade, multilateralism, cooperation with the developing world, and rapprochement with the Eastern Bloc. The members also established plans for future gatherings to take place regularly every year.In 1976, British prime minister Harold Wilson, who had participated in the first G6 summit, resigned from office; Schmidt and Ford believed the group needed an English speaker with more political experience, and advocated for inviting Pierre Trudeau, who had been Prime Minister of Canada for eight yearssignificantly longer than any G6 leader. Canada was also the next largest advanced economy after the G6 members. The summit in Dorado, Puerto Rico later that year became the first of the current Group of Seven.
In 1977, the United Kingdom, which hosted that year's summit, invited the European Economic Community to join all G7 summits; beginning in 1981, it has attended every gathering through the president of the European Commission and the leader of the country holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union. Since 2009, the then-newly established position of the president of the European Council, who serves as the Union's principal foreign representative, also regularly attends the summits.
Rising profile
Until the 1985 Plaza Accord, meetings between the seven governments' finance ministers were not public knowledge. The Accord, which involved only the original Group of Five, was announced the day before it was finalized, with a communiqué issued afterward.The 1980s also marked the G7's expanded concerns beyond macroeconomic issues, namely with respect to international security and conflict; for example, it sought to address the ongoing conflicts between Iran and Iraq and between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan.
Following the 1994 summit in Naples, Russian officials held separate meetings with leaders of the G7. This informal arrangement was dubbed the "Political 8", colloquially the G7+1. At the invitation of the G7 leaders, Russian president Boris Yeltsin was invited first as a guest observer, and 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 the Group of Eight. Russia was an outlier in the group, as it lacked the national wealth and financial weight of other members, and had never been an established liberal democracy.
Its invitation, made during a difficult transition to a post-communist economy, is believed to have been motivated by a desire to encourage its political and economic reforms and international engagement.
At the end of 1999, Putin became Yeltsin's successor.
In February 2007, Putin delivered a speech at the 43rd Munich Security Conference.
Russia's membership was suspended in March 2014 in response to its annexation of Crimea.
Members stopped short of permanently ejecting the country, and in subsequent years expressed an openness or express desire to reinstate Russian participation. In January 2017, Russia announced it would permanently leave the G8, which came into effect June 2018.
In 2020, U.S. president Trump, backed by Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte, advocated for Russia's return. All other members rejected the proposal, and Russia expressed no interest.
Renewed calls for expanded membership
There have been various proposals to expand the G7. The U.S.-based Atlantic Council has held the D-10 Strategy Forum since 2014 with representatives from what it calls "leading democracies" which support a "rules-based democratic order", consisting of all members of the G7 plus Australia and South Korea. Several democratic countriesincluding India, Indonesia, Poland, and Spain participate as observers. Centered around a similar mandate as the G7, the D-10 has been considered by some analysts to be an alternative to the group; This is also favored by various think tanks and former British leader Boris Johnson.In 2019 under Putin, Russia had signaled support for the inclusion of China, India, and Turkey if the G7 had reinstated Russian membership.
In 2020 under Trump, the U.S. had signaled support for the inclusion of Australia, Brazil, India, and South Korea, plus the reincorporation of Russia. The leaders of the other six G7 members unanimously rejected this proposal.
Also in November 2020, Jared Cohen and Richard Fontaine, writing in Foreign Affairs, suggested that the G7 might be expanded to a "T-12" of "Techno Democracies". Earlier, in June of that same year, the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence was announced. Something of a spin-out of the G7, founded by members Canada and France, GPAI's initial membership was 15, including both the EU and India, as well as Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, and the Republic of Korea.
Boris Johnson invited representatives of Australia and the Republic of Korea to the June 2021 G7 summit. India was also invited to the 2021 summit, with an aim to "deepen the expertise and experience around the table" along with the other guests, according to a U.K. government statement.
In 2021, French jurist and consultant Eric Gardner de Béville, a member of the Cercle Montesquieu, proposed Spain's membership to the G7. American Chargé d'Affaires in Spain, Conrad Tribble, stated that the United States "enthusiastically supports" a "greater" role of Spanish leadership at the international level.
In April 2022, Germany confirmed it would be inviting India, against rumours to the contrary.
In March 2023, Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida invited South Korea, Australia, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, the Comoros, the Cook Islands and Ukraine to the 49th summit hosted in Hiroshima.
Ronald A. Klain writing for the Carnegie Endowment, proposed creating the G9 by adding South Korea and Australia due to the Eurocentrism of the current alliance and rising challenges posed by China in Asia.
In March 2025, Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney invited President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend the 51st G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, followed by invitations for Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese to attend in May and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to attend in June.