The 45th G7 summit was held on August 24–26, 2019, in Biarritz, France. Apart from G-7 Head of States, Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi also participated as a special invitee. Though India is not a member of the grouping, Mr. Modi was personally invited by the French President Emmanuel Macron.
- The 2019 G7 Summit was presided over by France. The US will take over the G7 Presidency from 1 January 2020.
- French President Emmanuel Macron announced that G7 countries would release $22m (£18m) financial support to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest. However, President Jair Bolsonaro said Mr Macron’s plan of an “alliance” to “save” the Amazon treated Brazil “as if we were a colony or no man’s land”. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), more than 75,000 fires have been recorded in Brazil so far in 2019, most of them in the Amazon region.
India-USA Meeting
- On August 26, 2019 Mr. Modi and Trump hold bilateral meeting. Trump announced that ”all issues between India and Pakistan are bilateral in nature, that is why they don’t bother any other country regarding them,” Trump said, adding that Modi told him the situation in Kashmir is under control.
About G-7
- G-7 stands for ‘Group of Seven’ industrialized nations. Earlier it was known as G-8. Russia was ousted from the then G8 in 2014 after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine, which was seen by leaders as a “violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
- France, Italy, Japan, UK, USA and West Germany formed the Group of Six in 1975 so that the noncommunist powers could come together to discuss economic concerns, which at the time included inflation and recession following an OPEC oil embargo. Canada joined the following year. Russia joined in 1998.
- The seven G7 countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US. Together, the G7 countries represent 40% of global GDP and 10% of the world’s population.
