What Does the G7 Do?

Introduction

Advertisement

Close

The G7 is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK)—that meets annually to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security, and, most recently, artificial intelligence (AI). Proponents say the forum’s small and relatively homogenous membership promotes collective decision-making, but critics note that it often lacks follow-through and excludes emerging powers.

Advertisement

Close

The G7’s future has recently been challenged by tensions with Russia—previously a member from 1998 to 2014, when it was suspended for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea region—and, increasingly, China. Internal disagreements over trade and climate policies have further tested the group’s resilience. But responding to Moscow and Beijing has also brought the bloc closer together. In a sign of renewed cooperation, the G7 has imposed coordinated sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine and launched a major global infrastructure investment program to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative. At the 2024 summit in Apulia, Italy, G7 countries agreed on a new framework to fund Ukraine with profits from frozen Russian assets and adopted a more assertive approach toward China. 

Advertisement

Close

This year’s meeting marks the fiftieth anniversary of the summit, which will be held in Kananaskis, Canada. At the forefront of the summit is climate change, global economic stability, digital governance, continued support for Ukraine, and the development of coalitions and reliable partnerships to aid long-term security.

Why was the G7 formed, and how does it work?

The United States, France, Italy, Japan, the UK, and West Germany formed the Group of Six in 1975 to provide a venue for noncommunist powers to address pressing economic concerns, which included inflation and a recession sparked by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo. Canada joined the following year, and Cold War politics invariably entered the group’s agenda.

The European Union (EU) has participated fully in the G7 since 1981 as a “nonenumerated” member. It is represented by the presidents of the European Council, which comprises EU member states’ leaders, and of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body. There is no formal criteria for membership, but all participants are wealthy democracies. In 2024, the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of G7 member states, not including the EU, was nearly $57 trillion—or about 29 percent of the global economy.

Unlike the United Nations or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the G7 is not a formal institution with a charter and a secretariat. The presidency, which rotates annually among member states, is responsible for setting the agenda of each year’s summit and arranging logistics for it. Ministers and envoys, known as sherpas, hammer out policy initiatives at meetings that precede the gathering of national leaders. Nonmember countries are sometimes invited to participate in G7 meetings.

What happened with Russia?

Russia formally joined the group in 1998, making it the G8. U.S. President Bill Clinton thought that admitting Russia would lend the country international prestige and encourage its first post-Soviet leader, Boris Yeltsin, to hew more closely to the West. Clinton also believed that membership would help mollify Russia as the NATO security alliance opened its doors to former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe.

Clinton’s decision drew some pushback. Finance ministries, in particular, were wary of coordinating economic policy with Russia, which had a relatively small economy and large public debt. But Russia’s backsliding into authoritarianism under President Vladimir Putin has provoked an even stronger reaction. Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in March 2014 resulted in its indefinite suspension from the group. Frictions between Russia and the G7 also grew over Russia’s support for Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, especially in the wake of chemical attacks linked to Syrian forces, and over Russian interference in U.S. and European elections.

As Russia’s intervention in Ukraine escalated, the United States and EU ratcheted up economic sanctions in an effort to further isolate Russia. But the Ukraine conflict has only intensified, with Russia launching a full-scale invasion in early 2022. In response, G7 countries have levied unprecedented sanctions. This includes phasing out imports of Russian oil and gas—a major source of revenue for Moscow—and barring Russian banks from transacting in dollars and euros. Other measures are aimed at curtailing Russia’s military capabilities. G7 members have also provided weapons to Ukraine, collectively allocated hundreds of billions of dollars in financial and military aid, and agreed to loan the country an additional $50 billion using windfall profits from frozen Russian assets as collateral.

What other challenges has the group faced?

Experts hoped that the reconstituted G7 would have the potential to better facilitate collective action. Without Russia, the group was more “like-minded and capable,” according to former CFR fellow Stewart M. Patrick, currently the Director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. However, U.S. President Donald Trump challenged G7 unity on a number of issues during his first term, with trade and climate chief among them, contending that U.S. allies took advantage of the United States. Trump also split with the group by calling for Russia’s readmission to the bloc; in May 2025, during his second term, Trump criticized Russia’s ousting from the group, saying the decision resulted in the war in Ukraine. Other challenges stem from China’s rise as a military and economic power, increasing nuclear proliferation, and the development of AI.

At his first G7 summit in 2017, Trump refused to commit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate and hinted at plans to withdraw from the deal, leading other members to take the unusual step of singling out the United States in their final communiqué. In an unprecedented statement following the summit, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel questioned the cohesiveness of the transatlantic relationship, saying that for the first time since World War II, Europe “must take our fate into our own hands.” Other leaders and many analysts were alarmed by Trump’s testy relationship with the rest of the group during his first presidency. At the same time, European leaders of the G7 have contended with a laundry list of regional challenges, including navigating the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and maintaining cohesion amid rising nationalism.

Alongside the Russia challenge, the G7 has recently sought to respond to China’s growing ambitions. In March 2025, the bloc hardened their stance on China’s “coercion” toward Taiwan. This marked a significant shift in tone by removing references to the One China policy, a framework that Beijing has interpreted to mean that Taiwan is part of China and will eventually be reunified. However, the move also notably omitted previous criticisms of Beijing’s human rights abuses in Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as its repression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region. 

The United States, Japan, and the EU have all shared grievances over China’s state-led economic model and alleged unfair trading practices. The country’s growing trade and defense ties with Russia have also caused concerns. At the 2024 summit, G7 members overcame previous divisions within the group over how to respond to China; the final communiqué [PDF] referenced Beijing dozens of times, almost always as an adversary. 

Meanwhile, repeated nuclear threats by Putin, alongside an increasingly bellicose North Korea, have reinvigorated worries about nuclear weapons. Some experts fear that rapidly advancing AI could raise the risk of nuclear conflict. At the 2023 summit, the bloc unveiled the “Hiroshima AI Process,” which seeks to develop a common framework for AI governance worldwide.

Are there alternatives to the G7?

In addition to its internal divisions, external dynamics have chipped away at the G7’s global influence, many analysts note. Some argue that the group lacks relevance without China and other emerging global powers. The bloc’s current priorities “risk failure” unless they garner support from other countries, wrote Laura von Daniels, head researcher of the Americas division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, after the 2023 summit. Perhaps aware of this, G7 summits often include leaders from outside the bloc. 

For the 2025 summit, Canada notably extended a summit invite to India this year, despite the two countries’ relationship facing significant strain recently. Other countries that have also been invited include Australia, Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa, and Ukraine.

Many analysts believe that the power and prestige of the G20, a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors from nineteen of the world’s largest countries, the EU, and the African Union (AU), has surpassed that of the G7. Emerging powers including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa all belong to the G20, as does Russia, despite calls by some G7 countries for its removal. The group’s member states (not including the AU or EU) represent approximately 85 percent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.

Many observers argue that the G20 was most effective during the 2007–08 global financial crisis. G20 leaders first met in Washington in 2008 after the fall of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. While such consensus has been harder to come by in the years since the crisis, G20 summits have been the occasion for setting ambitious goals. At the 2014 summit, hosted by Australia, leaders adopted a plan to boost their economies by a collective 2.1 percent by 2018, which they did not achieve. In Hangzhou, China, in 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping used the summit to jointly announce their accession to the Paris Agreement.

There are also calls for new multilateral arrangements. Some experts previously endorsed an expansion of the G7 to include Australia, India, and South Korea, thereby forming a “D10” group of democracies. During his first presidency, Trump floated the idea of a Group of Eleven, comprising the D10 countries and Russia. For its part, Russia and nine other countries form the BRICS group, named for its other original members Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. The bloc admitted Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates in 2024, and Indonesia in 2025.

What’s next for the G7?

Some experts acknowledge that the G7’s influence has diminished, but say that it still has value because all member countries are grappling with similar issues. “The G7 may no longer be a global agenda setter,” writes Riccardo Alcaro, research coordinator and head of the Global Actors Program at the Institute of International Affairs, an Italian think tank. “Yet, insofar as it generates consensus within the U.S.-led Western camp on the conditions for coordinating with geopolitical foes such as China and Russia and reaching out to the Global South, it will retain significant capacity to shape international relations.”

Indeed, achieving consensus on previously divisive issues proved a defining feature of the 2024 summit. In Italy, G7 leaders agreed to a long-debated plan to fund Ukraine using the future expected proceeds from seized Russian assets. European countries, which hold most of these reserves, had for months been reluctant to embrace this Washington-supported plan, making its adoption a “major win for U.S. diplomacy,” according to CFR Senior Fellow for Europe Matthias Matthijs. The summit also chastised China—often referred to as a partner at past summits—for supporting “Russia’s war machine,” as well as for its assertiveness in the South China Sea and its “economic coercion.” On Israel’s ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, the summit’s final leaders’ statement endorsed U.S. President Joe Biden’s plan for a ceasefire, expressing support for Israel while also urging it to reduce civilian casualties in its fight against Hamas.  

Following several recent major elections, the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, and the UK have all welcomed new leadership. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariff threats on several G7 countries, with the ninety-day pause expiring July 9, and the lowered U.S. sovereign credit rating loom over the 2025 summit.