A Brief on G7 Summit and India’s Participation

G7 is a strategic political and economic forum comprising of seven countries namely the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan. Between 1997 and 2013, Russia was also a part of this group which was then called the G8. Russia’s participation was suspended following it’s annexation of Crimea.

India is not an active member of the G7 group but has been invited as a guest consistently since 2019. The sheer credit of the continued invitation goes to Prime Minister Modi’s government and its geo-political strategies making India indispensable on the global stage.

Prior to 2019, there have been sporadic invitations to India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had attended five G7 summits during his tenure, primarily as a consultative partner for developing economies.

A pivotal change occurred with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's debut at the G7 summit in 2019. Since then, India has received an invitation to every G7 summit, with Mr. Modi participated in four consecutive in-person editions and one virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. India is now overtaking Japan to become the fourth largest economy in the world. Being a consistent guest partner at the G7 group meet highlights a significant shift in the global power dynamics and also acceptance of India’s geo-political and economic stature on the global platform by the G7 group.

C onsistent invitation to G7, irrespective of the host country has established India’s importance to the G7’s agenda. Even strained bilateral relations with Canada has not deterred an invitation to Prime Minister Modi for this year’s edition of 2025. India’s continued participation at the summit highlights India’s crucial role in global economic and strategic discussions. It is evident that for a forum like G7 which aims to address global economic policies and stability, exclusion of a nation with India’s GDP and population would significantly limit the strategic impact of its initiatives.

India has leveraged it’s participation in the G7 summit by putting forth the interests of its own country as well as entire Global South advocating challenges like climate change, equal access to natural resources, inclusive global governance and digital transformation.

India has been firm on it’s multi-alignment policy which allows it to strategically engage with western powers while maintaining it’s autonomy and independent policy choices. This was well demonstrated by its nuanced stance on Russia-Ukraine conflict while maintaining with Russia an energy transition partnership. This approach has positioned India as a crucial intermediary and a co-creator of solutions in a multipolar world.