G7 MEETING: Leading Industrialised Nations Discuss Global Agenda

The G7 is an informal forum of leading industrialised nations, which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Representatives of the European Union are always present at the annual meeting of the heads of state and government of the G7. Germany holds the presidency of the G7 in 2022.

The Agenda on the table include Environment, Energy, Climate, Food Security, Health, Gender Equality, and Democracy; with sessions to discuss other geopolitical issues.

A number of international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank, are also participating in the Summit.

The first “World Economic Summit”, which later became the G7, was launched in 1975 .

In 1998, the Group of Eight was constituted as Russia became a member. Russia was thrown out of the group after its violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in 2014.

Germany has the G7 presidency for the seventh time this year. Japan will be president in 2023.

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.

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.

U.S. aims to raise $200 billion to rival Belt & Road

In the meantime, The U.S. aims to raise $200 billion in private and public funds over five years to fund needed infrastructure in developing countries under a G7 initiative aimed at countering China’s Belt and Road project.

U.S. President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders relaunched the newly renamed “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment,” at their annual gathering being held this year at Schloss Elmau in southern Germany.

The G-7 program responds to China’s so-called Belt and Road Initiative, which Western officials have long argued traps receiving countries in debt and with investments that benefit China more than their hosts.

The White House says the initiative seeks to leverage $200 billion in U.S. investment over the next five years, along with a similar amount from G-7 allies, to boost infrastructure development in lower- and middle-income nations.

It adds that most of the funding will come from the private sector, sovereign wealth and global development funds, rather that direct taxpayer dollars.

The U.S. says the G-7 backed effort promotes responsible investments that aim to benefit the communities they are made in.

Among the first initiatives are a $2 billion solar farm investment in Angola in Southwest AFrica, $320 million for hospital construction in Ivory Coast, in West Africa, and $40 million to promote regional energy trade in Southeast Asia.