The leaders of the world’s seven most advanced economies – the Group of Seven (G7) – economies are holding a 3-day summit in the United Kingdom with special focus on coronavirus pandemic and vaccination strategy, climate change, economy and geopolitics.
According to the UK government, the thrust will be at “ensuring that people everywhere can benefit from open trade, technological change and scientific discovery.”
This incidentally is the first in-person G7 summit in almost two years.
As day one of the G7 Summit draws to a close, catch up on the key moments of the day.
🇬🇧 🇨🇦 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇺🇸 🇪🇺#G7UK pic.twitter.com/mXsFsroj5l
— G7 UK (@G7) June 11, 2021
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be speaking in three sessions on June 12 and June 13 which are themes of ‘Building Back Stronger’, ‘Building Back Together’ and ‘Building Back Greener’ respectively.
On May 11 it was announced that given the prevailing COVID-19 situation, PM Modi will not attend the G7 Summit in person. UK side has conveyed that PM Boris Johnson understands and supports PM’s decision to stay in India and will make all efforts to ensure his participation in the Summit is seamless, “as if he were actually in the room”. So accordingly the outreach sessions would be in hybrid format.
Here’s a lowdown of what’s on the agenda and India’s role in the G7 summit:
G7 SUMMIT: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW
UK’s Presidency: 2021
- UK is current G7 President. This is the 7th time UK is heading the G7.
- The theme selected by UK for its G7 Presidency is ‘Build Back Better’ in a nod to global recovery efforts post-pandemic.
- Drawing from this theme, the UK has identified four priority areas for G7 action. These are:
- Leading the global recovery from coronavirus while strengthening resilience against future pandemics on the Health Track
- Promoting future prosperity by championing free and fair trade on the Trade and Finance Track
- Tackling climate change and preserving the planet’s biodiversity on the Climate and Environment Track. As COP26 Chair, UK is using the G7 to build synergies for its agenda in the COP26
- Championing shared values and open societies on the Foreign and Development Track
History: India and the G7
- India first participated in the Outreach Session of the G7 Summit in 2003. PM Vajpayee was invited by the then French Presidency. Focus was on climate change and global economic growth.
- 2005-2009: India was invited annually to G7 Summit Outreach Sessions and PM Manmohan Singh participated.
- France invited PM Modi to the G7 ‘Biarritz Summit’ in 2019 as “a Goodwill Partner”. PM Modi participated in two Outreach Sessions. The first on ‘Climate, Biodiversity and Oceans’ and the second on ‘Digital Transformation’
- PM was a lead speaker in the session on Digital Transformation and he spoke of the impact of the ‘Digital India’ programme on social inclusion and empowerment in India.
- India endorsed the following G7 documents/declarations in 2019 ‘Metz Charter on Biodiversity’, the ‘Biarritz Partnership on Gender Equality’, the ‘International Partnership for Information and Democracy’. India also adopted a Joint declaration entitled ‘Biarritz Declaration: Strategy for an open, free and secure digital revolution’ with G7 and other guest countries namely Australia, South Africa and Chile.
- President Trump had invited PM to attend the G7 Outreach sessions in Camp David to be held in June 2020 under the US Presidency. The Summit was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
India’s engagement with the G7 this year
- India has engaged closely with the G7 on the following tracks:
- Health: We have been involved in working level meetings. Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, participated in the G7 Health Ministers’ meeting on June 4.
- Climate & Environment: Have engaged closely with the UK and other G7 members on important issues in the climate track including on areas for collaboration in the run up to COP26 in November. Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar participated in the Ministerial meeting on 21 May.
- Digital and Technology: Have participated in working level discussions on several important issues of cyber governance and regulation. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad participated in the Ministerial meeting on 29 April.
- Economic Resilience Panel (ERP): Principal Economic Advisor Sanjeev Sanyal represented India on the G7 ERP as an Observer. The panel is discussing ways to strengthen resilience of global supply chains and preserve a free and open multilateral trading system.