PM Modi to attend G7 Summit [All about G7]

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently invited PM Modi to attend G7 summit. UK has invited Australia and South Korea as well. Earlier, UK had proposed the idea of D10. D10 includes members of G7 and India, Australia and South Korea.

About G7

G7 was originally formed in 1975. The members are USA, Canada, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, UK. Russia was formally inducted as a member of the group in 1998. With this G7 became G8. However, when Russia moved its troops into eastern Ukraine and conquered Crimea in 2014, the other G8 countries criticized Russia heavily. They subsequently suspended Russia from G8. With this, the G8 again became G7 in 2014.

For a country to become the member of G7, it must hold high net national wealth and high Human Development Index.

Working of G7 summit

The G7 annual summit is presided over by leaders of its member countries on rotational basis. The summit is an informal gathering that is held for two days. During the summit, the leaders discuss global issues. The ground work of the summit is done by the “Sherpas”. Sherpas are the personal representatives or members of ambassadors of G7 members.

Importance of G7

The decisions taken at G7 have huge impact globally as the members are the major economic powers. They represent 58% of global net wealth. However, the decisions taken at G7 are not legally binding but has strong political influence.

Five of the seven members of G7, US, Italy, Japan, France, Germany have the largest proven reserves of gold.

Criticisms

G7 attracts thousands of protestors. The protestors claim that G7 has no representatives from Africa and other middle eastern countries. The protest groups use worldwide platform as a stage to loby and campaign on issues that are important to them. Also, several claim that G7 is increasing the gap between the developed and developing countries and is making the fight against poverty more difficult.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2021