New Delhi: Leaders from the group of seven countries are in Cornwall, England to attend the G7 summit that kicked off on Friday (11 June) to discuss the Covid-19 pandemic, global vaccination efforts and climate change, among other topics. Hosted by the UK this year, the G7 grouping includes UK, US, Canada, Germany, Italy, France with the EU participating. Moreover, India, South Korea, South Africa, Australia have been invited to attend as guests this year.
Given the COVID-19 situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to participate in the outreach session of the G7 summit later today (12 June) and tomorrow, under the theme 'Build Back Better'.
When asked about the significance of the G7 summit in the new world order, India's former ambassador and former consul general of India in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Jitendra Tripathi said: "G7 is a group of seven economically developed country. Although India was not a part, last year, India was invited to attend as a guest in France. This year too, India has been invited by the UK to attend the G7 summit because India is emerging as a global power economically as well as politically. This shows that India's voice is being heard in all the significant regional and global forums."
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He said that G7 countries control more than 50 percent of the world economy, making it the most important forum after the UN to control and guide the economy of the world. "What India can expect from the G7 summit is to get support in terms of Covid-19 vaccines," he added. Therefore, this summit can be seen as the beginning of the new world order, based on cooperation and alliances among countries for solving some of the toughest challenges that humanity faces.
Tripathi further opined that the G7 is likely to discuss Intellectual Property Rights because not only India but other countries are suffering too. "In the name of intellectual property rights, people are being deprived of the latest cutting edge technologies in various areas especially in terms of carbon footprint," he added.
This summit comes at a time when half of the whole world is reeling under the pandemic. Therefore, the main thrust of the summit would be to control countries from carrying out vested agendas, he pointed out. Notably, India has closely engaged with G7 health, climate and environment, digital technology, economic resilience panel.
Held in a hybrid mode, the theme for the Summit is ‘Build Back Better’ and the UK has outlined four priority areas for its Presidency. These are leading the global recovery from coronavirus while strengthening resilience against future pandemics; promoting future prosperity by championing free and fair trade; tackling climate change and preserving the planet’s biodiversity; and championing shared values and open societies.
The Leaders are expected to exchange views on the way forward on global recovery from the pandemic with a focus on health and climate change. It will be the second time Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be participating in a G7 meeting. India had been invited by the G7 French Presidency in 2019 to the Biarritz Summit as a "Goodwill Partner” and Prime Minister participated in the Sessions on ‘Climate, Biodiversity and Oceans’ and ‘Digital Transformation’.
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Meanwhile, President Biden who is on his first overseas trip since taking office, on Friday, welcomed the historic commitment of the leaders of the G7 and guest countries to provide more than 1 billion additional COVID-19 vaccines for the world. In the initiative starting which is starting this summer, the US has pledged to donate half a billion vaccine doses. The G7 draws its roots from a meeting between the current G7 members, excluding Canada, that took place in 1975. At the time, the global economy was in a state of recession due to the OPEC oil embargo.
