The list of topics is long, and the venue is highly symbolic. Here's what you need to know about the G7 summit in Japan.
Hiroshima - This year, for the 49th time, the heads of state and government of the seven leading democratic industrialized nations and the leaders of the European Union are meeting for an informal summit. At their annual G7 summit, the most powerful politicians in the Western world exchange views on issues of economic and world politics and agree on common positions on political and economic issues of global importance.
Since this year's G7 presidency is held by Japan, this time the meeting will take place in Hiroshima, Japan. From 19 to 21 May, the city, which was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945, will discuss the current challenges facing the Western community of values. Host Japan is relying on the symbolic power of Hiroshima to send a political signal against nuclear weapons, even though the G7 countries France, Great Britain and the USA have them.
Venue as a gesture against nuclear weapons
This gesture is likely to be directed primarily against Russia's aggressive quest for power. Since the war against Ukraine, which violates international law, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly threatened more or less directly with the use of nuclear weapons. The danger of nuclear escalation has not been as great as it is today for many decades. Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is said to be particularly keen to call on the Russian autocrat to show moderation when it comes to nuclear weapons. He grew up in Hiroshima and has his constituency there.
Either way, this summit of global leaders will stand out from previous meetings of this kind because of its venue. While last year, during the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau, it was pictures of top politicians in front of a picturesque mountain backdrop that dominated the reporting, this year it is likely to be pictures of heads of state and government visiting the atomic bomb dome, the Hiroshima peace memorial.
What else is there to know about the G7 summit in Hiroshima? We have compiled the most important facts about this major event for you.
Who is part of the G7?
G7 stands for "Group of Seven" and, in addition to this year's host Japan, includes the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy. Originally, these were the world's seven leading industrial nations, but this is no longer the case today: Italy and Canada have now been overtaken by China and India. However, economic power has lost importance as a unifying element, and common democratic values are increasingly coming to the fore. As a supranational organisation, the European Union is also a member of the G7 and participates in its meetings as an observer.
What are the topics of the G7 summit?
This year's meeting of the G7 will be marked by the current upheavals in world politics. Maintaining the international order is a key concern of the G7. The Russian war against Ukraine therefore represents its greatest challenge in recent decades. The enforcement of Western sanctions against Russia is high on the agenda this year. To this end, the global South is to be more involved, as countries such as India circumvent the sanctions in order to be able to do business with Russia. A call against Russia to renounce the use of nuclear weapons is also likely to be the focus, as is already evident from the Hiroshima venue.
In addition to the Ukraine war and its consequences, the increasingly smouldering conflict between autocratic China and the democratic West will also set the agenda. This is also due to the fact that the G7 is currently chaired by Japan. Asia's largest democracy sees itself directly threatened by its Chinese neighbor's quest for power and has already announced in the run-up to the summit that China will be addressed "in an appropriate manner," as the dpa news agency reported. Closely linked to this is also the plan to work for a "free and open Indo-Pacific region", as it says in an official statement. This is likely to be directed against China's territorial claims there.
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G7 summit in Hiroshima: These countries are part of it
- Germany
- France
- Great Britain
- Italy
- Japan
- Canada
- United States
Climate change, the international food crisis and nuclear disarmament will also be on the agenda of the G7 summit.
How long will the G7 summit last?
This year's G7 summit in Hiroshima will last three days, from May 19 to 21. That is the usual length of this international summit. They extend over two to three days, usually over a weekend.
Who pays for the G7 summit?
The costs of the G7 summit will be borne by the country in which it takes place, in this case Japan. It is a costly summit meeting: The last summit in June 2022 at Schloss Elmau in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, cost a total of 145 million euros, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The costs are shared between the state of Bavaria and the federal government.
How long has the G7 summit been in existence?
The G7 summit goes back to the G6 summit, which Germany and France launched in 1975 to consult primarily on economic issues against the backdrop of the global economic crisis at the time. In addition to the founding states of Germany and France, Great Britain, Italy, the USA and Japan also took part in the first "World Economic Summit" near Paris. In 1976, this "Group of Six" was expanded to include Canada, and the G6 became the G7. Since 1977, the European Union (then still the European Community) has also taken part in the meetings regularly, and since 1981 in full. In 1998, Russia became the eighth member. However, the format of the G8 only existed until 2014. Because of Russia's annexation of Crimea in violation of international law, it was decided at the time to meet without Russia and return to the G7 format.