Written by Tiara Jain, a grade 7 student.

The Group of Seven (G7) is an international intergovernmental economic organization that has 7 major countries. The seven countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The importance of the G7 summit is that the leaders of the summit aim to address challenges affecting the growth of the economy of the world (like slowdowns in emerging markets and drops in the price of oil).  G7 was created about 4 decades ago as an annual gathering of political leaders to discuss and exchange ideas on a broad range of issues, including global economic security and energy.

 A summit meeting (or just summit) is an international meeting of the heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security, and a prearranged agenda. In the context of business, summit meetings are designed to bring together the appropriate stakeholders to develop a high level-strategy or address a crucial, overarching problem. It is meant to deal with the sorts of things that will impact the future of the business and not mundane day to day issues. The people who attend the summit include the leaders of the  G7 member states as well as representatives of the European Union. The President of the European Commission has been a permanently welcome participant at all meetings and has helped in decision-making since 1981. The leader of the state decides where the next G7 summit will be held. 

At First, the G7 summit was known as the G8 summit, but, in 2014, Russia was suspended indefinitely following the annexation of Crimea, whereupon the political forum name reverted to G7. There is also a forum known as the G20, but there are some differences between the G7 and G20 summit. The G7 has a stronger focus on politics in industrialised countries, including discussions on health, energy, environment, and terrorism, while the G20 looks at economic issues facing developed and emerging economies.  The G7 has had some recent developments and has brought together the world’s advanced economies to influence global trends and tackle pervasive and cross-cutting issues. The G7 has strengthened international economic and security policies, mainstreamed climate change and gender equality, brought donors together, and supported disarmament programs.

Written by Tiara Jain, a grade 7 student.