In a proud moment, India will be invited to the G7 summit at Biarritz, France this year, French ambassador Alexander Ziegler said while addressing the journalists in the press conference.
France, which is the chair of the G-7 grouping invited India to the summit slated for August 24-26, where discussions will be focused on fighting inequality.
The group consists of US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Italy.
Needless to say, this is not the first time India will mark its presence at this exclusive club. In 2005, Tony Blair invited the then PM Manmohan Singh to the Gleneagles G8 summit. Today, India is widely being recognized for the strength of its growing economy and global footprint.
The G7 is actually an informal grouping whose summits typically focus on large issues of global economy and governance. Russia was invited to be a member for a while in 1998. but was removed after it annexed Crimea in 2014 along with cutting relations between Moscow and Washington. The EU also participates as a “non-enumerated member”
For your information, G7 is a group of advanced developed economies with a margin of space given to emerging economies like India and China. It’s mainly the significant reason why the G-20 is now seen as the more representative body.
The invitation to India is now seen as the significant one. Albeit China is not in the room, it has a major presence in all G7 discussions. This year, Italy became the first G7 nation to formally join China’s BRI enterprise.