G7 is an informal grouping consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the United States to discuss issues. All seven are top-ranked countries in terms of the highest net wealth per capita and are leading export nations. Apart from this, five are among the top 10 countries with the largest gold reserves. They account for over 46 per cent of the global gross domestic product and over 65 per cent of the world’s net national wealth.
History Of G7
Origin
Informal meetings of a small group of finance ministers and central bank officials became more common after the formation of IMF and BIS. Later, these exclusive club model meetings of rich nations came to be known as “club model diplomacy“, or “K group“, or the gaggle of “G‘s”.
The G10, formed in 1961, was the precursor to such K groups and had a limited remit involving the administration of a collective pool of capital designed to finance payment imbalances and to provide a source of liquidity in emergency circumstances.
During the early 1970s, there were several shocks like
- The collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system was based on fixed exchange rates and the US dollar’s convertibility into gold.
- Oil crisis resulting from the OPEC embargo following the Yom Kippur War.
- 1974 recession in OECD countries.
And the existing system became incapable of solving this problem.
Library Group
On March 25, 1973, the Finance ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, West Germany, and France met at the White House Library to discuss monetary issues. Thus, the informal Library group was formed. The US Treasury Secretary, George Shultz, the Finance Minister of France, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, and the Finance Minister of West Germany, Helmut Schmidt, participated in this informal meeting.In July, Japan joined them at the British Ambassador’s residence in Nairobi, Kenya.
Later, they decided to meet periodically without creating public noise to discuss developments in the monetary system. Now, there is a question. Why meet without publicity? They wanted to maintain confidentiality so their informal meetings would not influence the exchange market.
After the 1975 Rambouillet Summit, the countries continued to meet up to three times a year on their own cycle. During the 1976-77 period, meetings were held in Versailles, France, because Raymond Barre, the French Prime Minister and Finance Minister, found it difficult to travel.
In February 1987, in Tokyo, the G7 form was established, and G5 became irrelevant.
G5 Meeting Venues
- September 1975 – Washington D.C, USA
- November 1973 – Tours, France
- January 1974 – Rome, Italy
- June 1974 – Washington D.C, USA
- November 194 – proposed by the US, but do not know about its status
- January 1975 – Washington D.C, USA
- May 1975 – Paris, France
- August 1975 – Washington D.C, USA
- November 1975 – Rambouillet, France
- April 1977 – Versailles, France
- December 1977 – Versailles, France
- February 1978 – Versailles, France
- September 1979 – Paris, France
- April 1981 – London, UK
- December 1982 – Frankfurt, Germany
- January 1985 – Washington D.C, USA
- September 1985 – New York, USA
- October 1985 – Seoul, South Korea
- January 1986 – London, UK
- September 1986 – Washington D.C, USA
- February 1987 – Louvre, France
The Louvre, Paris meeting was an important one because of two critical incidents
- This was the last G5 meeting (afterwards, the G7 emerged, and the G5 lost its relevance).
- Italy boycotted it.
G6 And Quadripartite Luncheon
The quadripartite luncheon launches the G6 on July 61, 1975, at the British Ambassador’s residence in Helsinki, the Capital of Finland. UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Foreign Secretary Callaghan; French President Giscard and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean Sauvagnargues; the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Schmidt, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, and interpreter Gisela Anders; and US President Ford, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and interpreter Harry Obst participated in this luncheon.
Rambouillet summit became the inaugural G6 summit. Italy became the sixth member. In fact, Italy was somewhat reluctantly admitted into the elite club. Due to their closed nature, researchers and commentators name these groups as Atlantic-oriented groups.
Members of G7
Five countries —France, Germany, the UK, the USA, and Japan formed the G5. Italy became the sixth member.
Even though as a member, Italy’s invitation to the Puerto Rico summit in 1976 again became a question, and G7 leaders held their own meeting. This time, the Communist Party of Italy was the real problem.
At that limited participation meeting, the G5 decided to extend a large loan to Italy, conditions upon excluding the Italian communist party from participation in the government.
The next member to get admitted to the group was Canada. France raised the opposition to treat Canada.
Russia joined the G7 in 1997 at the invitation of US President Bill_Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Russia is not fully integrated into the G7 finance ministers’ forum. At the 1997 Denver summit, the first to be called the ‘Summit of the Eight,’ Russia gained admission.
From the 1983 Williamsburg summit, the form had its distinctive logos, the only exception being the 1984 London summit, which did not produce one.
G7 Annual Summit and Special Summit
Typically, four meetings, including the annual summit, take place in a year. In addition to these regular summits, two special summit meetings were held in 1985 and 1996. The 1985 special summit took place in New York. At this special summit, US President Ronald Reagan used the occasion to discuss arms-control proposals in preparation for the first US-USSR superpower summit. This summit was held without France’s participation.
The 1991 London summit held out the possibility of calling an extraordinary summit meeting later that year but failed. A special Nuclear Safety and Security Summit was convened in Moscow on 19-20 April 1996. Since Russia participated in this summit, it is usual to link it with A special Nuclear Safety and Security Summit that was convened in Moscow from April 19-20, 1996. It was co-chaired by Russia and France ( that year’s G7 presidency).
This session focused on the safety of civilian nuclear reactors, the question of nuclear liability, energy-sector strategies in countries in transition to a market economy, nuclear-waste management, the security of nuclear material and the prevention of illicit trafficking in nuclear material, the control and physical protection of – and accounting for – nuclear material, and the safe and effective management of weapons-grade fissile material.
Another special summit of the US, Germany, the UK, and France in Guadeloupe on January 5-6, 1979, was not part of the regular G7 cycle but rather a legacy of past Atlanticism (those days, officially, it was G5 with seven members).
The regular schedule of G7 meetings
- There are four scheduled G7 ministerial meetings throughout the year.
- The first meeting is usually held early in the new year and is often hosted by the country that is hosting the annual G8 summit.
- The second is held before the IMF and World Bank Development Committee meetings in the Spring and takes place in Washington D.C.
- The third meeting takes place in the weeks before the G8 summit.
- The final meeting is scheduled before the annual IMF/World Bank meeting.
Since the G7 process has a distinct annual rhythm and coincides with other multilateral meetings, the G7 forum can serve as a caucus for creditor groups. The consent of the G7 countries is essential for the IMF and the World Bank to proceed with their policies. In simple terms, the G7 can effectively veto new proposals. Above all, the USA has a disproportionate ability to control G7 agendas because it holds the highest number of ministerial meetings.
G7 Summit Chronology
The first cycle comprised all G7 summits from the first one in 1975, Rambouillet, through the 1997 Denver Summit.
The second G8 cycle began in the year 1998 and continues to the present.
G7 Summit and Special Focus Area
- First series (1975 -1978): Reviving growth.
- Second series (1979 – 1982): Bring inflation down.
- Third series (1983-1988): Rise of politics.
- The fourth series (1989-1993): To end the cold war.
- Fifth series (1994-1997): Institutions for Globalization.
- Sixth series (1998-2000): Globalization.
- Seventh series (2002- till date): Terrorism and its causes.
G7 Summit Theme
It is the prerogative of the host country to set the thematic focus for the summit, and even after the agenda is set, the country can modify, add or delete agenda items.
Engagement Groups of G7
- Business 7 (B7)
- Civil Society 7 (C7)
- Labour 7 (L7)
- Science 7 (S7)
- Think Tank 7 (T7)
- Women 7 (W7)
- Youth 7 (Y7)
- G7 trade ministers first met at the 1978 summit.
- The ‘Carnegie Group’ of G7, later G8, science ministers started in 1991.
- A G7 ministerial conference on the ‘global information society’ was held in Brussels on 24-26 February 1995.
- The first meeting of environment ministers was held formally in Germany just before the 1992 Munich summit.
- Labour ministers’ first meeting was the ‘Jobs Conference’ in Detroit on 14-15 March 1994.
G7 2025 In Canada
Canada assumed the presidency of the G7 for the seventh time on January 1, 2025, and will host the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, from June 15 to 17, 2025.
The 2025 G7 Presidency is focused on three priorities:
- Safeguarding our communities and the world.
- Building energy security and accelerating the digital transition.
- Securing the partnerships of the future.
Canada hosted a G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, from March 12 to 14, 2025, and a G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting in Banff, Alberta, from May 20 to 22, 2025.
Past G7 Presidencies of Canada
Canada hosted six G7 summits, and they are
- Charlevoix, Quebec (2018)
- Muskoka, Ontario (2010)
- Kananaskis, Alberta (2002)
- Halifax, Nova Scotia (1995)
- Toronto, Ontario (1988)
- Ottawa-Montebello, Ontario-Quebec (1981)
G7 Statements or communiques
Statements or communiqués that record what has been agreed upon are released at the end of G7 meetings. The words used in statements or documents are precise. It is used as a means of maintaining continuity for the G7 process. They frequently refer to previous statements and replicate whole passages of text. In this respect, once something is in a G7 statement, it becomes public property and can be referred to verbatim because it is effectively a statement of common intent.
Invited Countries to G7
President Mitterrand, holder of the G7 presidency in 1989, invited the leaders of fifteen developing countries to dinner on the eve of the Summit of the Arch. But the member didn’t join the dinner. Later, these guests formed G15. Kananaskis summit introduced a qualitative change in G8 relations with the ‘outreach countries’. In this summit, they participated in certain portions of dialogues.
India has been an outreach country in the G7 for many years. In 2025 Canada invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with the leaders of Ukraine, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea.
