US President Donald Trump has postponed the G7 Summit till September and expressed his desire to expand the “outdated” bloc to G10 or G11, including India and three other nations to the grouping of the world's top economies.

Trump has been over the weeks suggesting that there is “no greater example” of reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic than holding an in-person G7 summit in America by the end of June.

The president said that he is postponing the summit until September and plans to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India.

What is the significance of Group of Seven (G7)?

G7 is the group of top seven developed economies. These include the US, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. Heads of states meet annually on international economic and monetary issues.

The G7, originally G8, was set up in 1975 as an informal forum bringing together the leaders of the world’s leading industrial nations. The annual G7 summits have over the years developed into a platform for determining the course of multilateral discourse and shaping political responses to global challenges. It complements the role of the G20, which is widely regarded as the framework for ongoing global economic coordination.

It is capable of setting the global agenda because decisions taken by these major economic powers have a real impact. The political direction set by these leaders on a policy issue will have a “ripple” effect across many other international organisations and institutions.

Thus, decisions taken at the G7 are not legally binding, but exert strong political influence.

The US currently holds the annual presidency of G7 countries. In view of the coronavirus pandemic, there were talks of the summit being held virtually. However, Trump had been suggesting that it be held in person.

During the summit, the G7 president normally invites heads of states of one or two countries to attend the meeting as a special invitee. Last year, French President Emanuel Macron had invited PM Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit.

Russia was expelled in 2014

“I don’t feel that as a G7, it properly represents what’s going on in the world. It’s a very outdated group of countries. So it might be a G10, G11, and it could be after the election (in the US) is over,” Trump said.

He said the G7 Summit could happen before the UN General Assembly session in September. The presidential election in the US is scheduled for November 3. Trump is seeking a second term in the White House.

Trump said that he has already roughly broached the idea with the leaders of the four countries he’d like to add.

“We want Australia, we want India, we want South Korea. And what do we have? That's a nice group of countries right there,” he said, not mentioning Russia.

It was unclear whether Trump’s desire to invite the additional countries was a bid to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added, given what he called Moscow’s global strategic importance.

Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Barack Obama was US president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. 

Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.

Trump has already talked about re-inviting Russia back to the group.

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