Countries of the "Big Seven": the list and history of the international club

The so-called Group of Seven was formed in the 1970s. It is difficult to call it a full-fledged organization. This is, rather, a simple international forum. Nevertheless, the countries of the G-7, listed in this article, have an impact on the world political arena.

Briefly about G7

"Big Seven", "Group of Seven" or simply G7 - in the world this club of leading states is called in different ways. Calling this forum an international organization is mistaken, since this community does not have its own charter and secretariat. And the decisions taken by the G-7 are not binding.

Initially, the abbreviation G7 was embedded decoding "Group of Seven" (in the original: Group of Seven). However, Russian journalists in the early 1990s interpreted it as Great Seven. After this, the term "Big Seven" was fixed in Russian journalism.

Our article lists all the countries of the Group of Seven (the list is presented below), as well as their capitals.

History of the formation of an international club

Initially, the "Group of Seven" was in G6 format (Canada joined the club a little later). Leaders of the six leading states of the world first met in this format in November 1975. The initiator of the meeting was French President Valerie Giscard D'Estaing. The main topics of the meeting were the problems of unemployment, inflation, as well as the global energy crisis.

In 1976, Canada joined the group, and in the 1990s G7 was replenished with Russia, gradually becoming the G8.

The idea of creating such a forum was in the air in the early 70s of the last century. Strongers of the world pushed the energy crisis to such thoughts, as well as aggravation of relations between Europe and the United States. Since 1976, the G7 holds its meetings annually.

The following section lists all the countries of the G-7. The list includes the capitals of all these states. Representatives from each country are also indicated (as of 2015).

The "Big Seven" countries of the world (list)

Which states are part of the G7 today?

Listed below are all the countries of the G-7 (list) and their capitals:

1. USA, Washington (representative - Barack Obama).
2. Canada, Ottawa (Justin Trudo).
3. Japan, Tokyo (Shinzo Abe).
4. Great Britain, London (David Cameron).
5. Germany, Berlin (Angela Merkel).
6. France, Paris (Francois Hollande).
7. Italy, Rome (Mateo Renzi).

If you look at the political map, you can conclude that the countries belonging to the "Big Seven" are concentrated exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere of the planet. Four of them are in Europe, one - in Asia, two more states are located in America.

Summits of the "Big Seven"

Countries that are members of the "Big Seven" meet annually at their summits. Meetings alternately take place in the cities of each state from among the members of the "Group". This unspoken rule is valid until today.

A number of well-known cities hosted the G7 summits: London, Tokyo, Bonn, St. Petersburg, Munich, Naples and others. Some of them managed to take leading world politicians twice or even thrice.

The themes of meetings and meetings of the Group of Seven are different. In the 1970s, issues of inflation and unemployment were most often raised, the problem of the rapid increase in the price of oil was discussed, and a dialogue was established between East and West. In the 1980s, the G7 was concerned about the problems of AIDS and the rapid growth of the world's population. In the early 1990s, the world experienced a lot of major geopolitical cataclysms (the collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia, the formation of new states, the unification of Germany , etc.). Of course, all these processes were the main topic for discussion at the G7 summits.

The new millennium posed new global problems for the world community : climate change, food security, poverty, local military conflicts and others.

The G-7 and Russia

In the mid-1990s, Russia began to actively take root in the work of the G-7. Already in 1997, the G7, in fact, changes its format and turns into a G8.

The Russian Federation remained a member of an elite international club until 2014. In June, the country even prepared to host the G8 summit in Sochi. However, the leaders of the remaining seven states refused to take part in it, and the summit was moved to Brussels. The reason for this was the conflict in Ukraine and the fact of the annexation of the Crimean peninsula to the territory of the Russian Federation. Leaders of the United States, Canada, Germany and other countries of the G-7 do not yet see the possibility of returning Russia to the G7.

Finally...

The G-7 countries (listed in this article) undoubtedly have a significant influence on world politics. Over the whole history of its existence, the Group of Seven has held dozens of meetings and forums, at which urgent issues and global problems were discussed. G7 members are the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, Germany, France and Italy.