Recently, there was a call for
expansion of the G-7 membership by the U.S. President as well as British Prime
Minister. Though the expanded group looks like an anti-China grouping but the actual
motive of the expansion is to discipline China and not isolate it. (You can also read the Changing Global Order to understand the issue clearly)
Evolution
of the G-7
It was formed in the
year 1975 with six members, namely the United States,
the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France and Japan, Canada joining a year
later. When it was formed it represented about 70% of the
world economy, today it accounts for about 40% of world GDP. It was formed with
a common motive of tackling issues such as the response to oil shocks. G20 which was formed
after the global financial crisis of 2007-09 has overshadowed
the G-7. G-7 was for some period of time was called G-8 when Russia joined the
group in 1997, but in 2017 it was debarred from the membership when it annexed
Crimea.
Past
attempts of its expansion
It was France which initiated
the process of G-7 membership expansion in 2003 when it invited heads of states
of several “emerging economies” for a meeting of the group at Évian-les-Bains,
France.
After that the host countries
began to organize a meeting on the sidelines of their
summits with a
select group of five or six developing countries. Interestingly, India and China were
invited to all those summits.
This time the president Trump
has, however, gone a step further. He suggested that rather than inviting them
as a “guests” to a G-7 summit, he has proposed expanding the G-7 to a G-10 or
G-11. He has also come up with an interesting list of new members like Australia, India, South Korea and,
possibly, Russia. The group could be further expanded to G-12 with the inclusion of Indonesia —
one of the few democratic nations in the Islamic world. Trump has time and
again stated that this expansion is not to isolate China but to discipline it (Please refer: Changing equation of super powers for more info).
D-10
Also known as the 5G club of
democracies which is propose by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to end
the dominance of Chinese 5G technology. He is pushing to form a formal group to
channelize investment to develop their own 5g technology. This forma grouping
will include all the members of G-7 plus Australia, India and South Korea. Please refer Falling of International Institutions.
Defining
the Agenda of new Grouping
If Trump’s motivation in
expanding the G-7 is to disciplining China, then the grouping needs to define its agenda carefully. Because the
grouping is to be able alter China’s behaviour without
isolating it, the G-12 will have to widen their agenda. The agenda must not be
confined to purely economic issues but also include environment, health care and human rights.
Conclusion
India is the world’s largest
free market democracy and number one candidate to become the member of not just
a G-12 but of even a new G-7. Still India needs to cautiously take the decision
before joining any grouping, because it would be not a wise step to join any
group just to counter China.
Thank you for reading this
article, you can share your feedback in the comments section. You can also
suggest the topics on which you want our analysis.
Please like and subscribe to
this post for up-to-dated information on world affairs.
Follow our facebook page for
more such articles at:- https://www.facebook.com/thecivilanalyst
Useful info, nicely explained
ReplyDelete