Canada hosts G7 Summit 2025: All you need to know about 51-year-old forum
The G7, formed in 1973, is an intergovernmental forum for global policy coordination. The 2025 Summit in Canada marks its 51st edition.
The Group of Seven or G7 is an intergovernmental forum which coordinates global policies. Formed on March 25, 1973, the 2025 G7 Summit, taking place in Canada's Kananaskis, marked its 51st edition.
Formation of G7
In the 1970s, developed countries that were facing challenges like the Nixon shock (1971) and the first oil crisis (1973) realised the need to create a forum whereby policy coordination across topics such as economy, currency, trade, and energy would be proposed, discussed, and debated.
Proposed by then-French President Giscard d’Estaing, the first Summit was held in November 1975 at the Chateau de Rambouillet (in the outskirts of Paris), with six participant countries—France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Italy.
Members of the G7
As the name suggests, the forum originally comprised seven member countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, with the European Union adding to the list in 1977. EU is often dubbed as the eighth member of G7.
Russia, too, used to be a member of the G7 until it annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. It was following this incident that Russia was indefinitely suspended from the G7.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he thought it was a mistake for the group to gather without Putin at the table, The New York Times reported.
The 2018 gathering, which was also held in Canada, was marked by the spectacular fallout between Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau, who was then prime minister of Canada. An iconic photo from the summit had surfaced of the German chancellor at the time, Angela Merkel, leaning over Trump as they disagreed over whether to let Russia attend the group’s meetings, added the report.
G7 summits take place annually and are rotationally hosted by member presidencies.
The current leaders of the G7 include Prime Minister of Canada-Mark Carney, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz, Prime Minister of Italy Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Japan Shigeru Ishiba, Prime Minister of UK Keir Starmer, President of USA Donald Trump, President of the European Council- António Costa, and the President of the European Commission- Ursula von der Leyen.
Global importance of the G7 summit
Hosted by Canada, this year's G7 summit has been of emphasized importance because of the rising tensions in the Middle East.
According to a New York Times report, President Trump expressed regret on Monday that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was not a part of the G7 meetings as some of the world’s biggest powers and their allies convened for this year’s summit amid a perilous escalation in the Middle East and Mr. Trump’s reshaping of global alliances.
On Monday, as he met with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada as a part of the G7 summit this year, he repeated that assertion.
The G7 leaders focused on the global economy on Monday with Israel’s attacks on Iran, which continued to be the center of discussions throughout. Reportedly, Trump's tariffs would also be a focused topic in the three day summit.
Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu said that the launched attacks on Iran were designed to prevent any nuclear weapon development, with some members of the summit rooting for a rapid de-escalation between the two heated nations.
Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, are scheduled to join the summit to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war.
India and the G7 summit
Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi was also invited to the G7 summit this year, for the sixth consecutive time. Prime Minister Modi will also hold several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Summit, after India's Operation Sindoor which was carried out in response to the April 22 Pahalgam attacks. Operation Sindoor had targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
