Source: The Indian Express
Context:
The Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) met in Hiroshima for 49thannual Summit. This year’s summit is hosted by Japan in its capacity as the President of the grouping.
G7 Hiroshima Leaders’ Communiqué
The G7 leaders held a summit in Hiroshima and issued a communiqué covering various areas of cooperation and shared goals. Here are the key points:
Ukraine:
The G7 leaders strongly condemned Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and expressed their support for Ukraine. They decided to take concrete steps to assist Ukraine in the face of Russia’s illegal actions.
Disarmament and Non-proliferation:
The G7 leaders committed to strengthening efforts towards disarmament and non-proliferation with the ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.
They released the G7 Leaders’ Hiroshima Vision on Nuclear Disarmament.
Indo-Pacific:
The leaders emphasized the importance of a free and open Indo-Pacific based on the rule of law. They reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen coordination with regional partners, including ASEAN.
Global Economy, Finance, and Sustainable Development:
The G7 recognized the resilience of the global economy against multiple shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
They decided to coordinate approaches to economic resilience and security through partnerships and de-risking strategies.
They also focused on issues such as resilient supply chains, non-market policies, and economic coercion.
Debt Sustainability:
Debt sustainability was highlighted as a major concern, particularly for low- and middle-income countries affected by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The G7 supported efforts to improve the implementation of debt treatments and welcomed the development of Climate Resilient Debt Clauses (CRDC).
Infrastructure:
The G7 reaffirmed their commitment to the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) and aimed to mobilize up to $600 billion by 2027 for infrastructure funding.
Climate Change and Environment:
The G7 committed to accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and emphasized the connection between poverty reduction and addressing the climate and nature crisis.
They focused on clean energy transition, decarbonization, renewable energy deployment, plastic pollution, and ocean protection.
Food Security:
The G7 announced concrete steps to launch the Hiroshima Action Statement for Resilient Global Food Security to address current and future needs.
Health:
The G7 leaders pledged investment in global health, including vaccine manufacturing capacity, pandemic preparedness and response, and efforts towards universal health coverage (UHC).
Digital:
The G7 expressed their commitment to advancing international discussions on inclusive AI governance and interoperability for trustworthy AI.
Other Areas of Cooperation:
The G7 aimed to strengthen partnerships with African countries, increase cooperation on international migration, combat human trafficking and smuggling, and address gender, human rights, science, and technology.
China:
The leaders urged China to pressure its strategic partner Russia to end the war on Ukraine.
They expressed concern about China’s activities in the East and South China Seas and opposed China’s expansive maritime claims and militarization in the South China Sea region.
What is the G7?
- The Group of 7 (G7) is an informal group of seven countries — the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, the heads of which hold an annual summit with European Union and other invitees.
- Unlike other bodies such as NATO, the G7 has no legal existence, permanent secretariat or official members.
- It also has no binding impact on policy and all decisions and commitments made at G7 meetings need to be ratified independently by governing bodies of member states.
- The major purpose of the G-7 is to discuss and deliberate on international economic issues.
- G7 is capable of setting the global agenda because decisions taken by these major economic powers have a real impact. Thus, decisions taken at the G7 are not legally binding, but exert strong political influence.
- It sometimes acts in concert to help resolve other global problems, with a special focus on economic issues.
Other details:
- As of 2022, G7 countries make up 10% of the world’s population, 31% of global GDP, and 21% of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to the Summit website.
- China and India, the two most populous countries with among the largest GDP figures in the world, are not part of the grouping.
- In all G7 countries, annual public sector expenditure exceeded revenue in 2021.
- Most G7 countries also had a high level of gross debt, especially Japan (263% of GDP), Italy (151%) and the US (133%).
- The G7 countries are important players in global trade.
- The US and Germany in particular are major export nations. Both sold goods worth well over a trillion US dollars abroad in 2021.
History of the G7
- A meeting between the current G7 members, excluding Canada, in 1975 laid the basis for the formation G7. At the time, the global economy was in a state of recession due to the OPEC oil embargo.
- As the energy crisis was escalating, the then US Treasury Secretary decided that it would be beneficial for the large players on the world stage to coordinate with each other on macroeconomic initiatives.
- After this first summit, the countries agreed to meet annually and a year later, Canada was invited into the group which marked the official formation of the G7 as we know it.
- The President of the European Commission was asked to join the meetings in 1977 and following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and a subsequent thaw in relations between the East and West, Russia was also invited to join the group in 1998. Thereafter the group was named the G8 until 2014, when Russia was expelled for its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
- The presidency of G7 meetings is held by each of the seven countries in turn, each year. The country holding the presidency is responsible for organising and hosting the meeting.
