An unravelling of the Group of Seven (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2:International Relations
Prelims level: G7 countries 
Mains level: Know about G7 countries, why it’s lost relevance in modern times, process of the expansion of G7 countries, way forward

Context:

• The next G7 summit, tentatively scheduled in Washington DC in mid-June, has been postponed by the host, U.S. President Donald Trump. 
• His decision followed German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to stay away from the meeting, ostensibly because of restrictions on travel imposed by COVID-19. 
• The recent meetings of G7 have had desultory results. 

Logic of expansion:

• While postponing the summit “to at least September”, Mr. Trump declared that in any case, the G7 “is a very outdated group of countries” and no longer properly represented “what’s going on in the world”. 
• He asked, rhetorically, why not a G10 or G11 instead, with the inclusion of India, South Korea, Australia and possibly Russia?
• Elaborating this logic, the White House Director of Strategic Communications said the U.S. President wanted to include other countries, including the Five Eyes countries (an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States), and to talk about the future of China. 
• A Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official immediately reacted, labelling.................

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Background:

• The G7 emerged as a restricted club of the rich democracies in the early 1970s. 
• The quadrupling of oil prices just after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, when members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an embargo against Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States, shocked their economies. 
• On the initiative of U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the G7 became the G8, with the Russian Federation joining the club in1998. This ended with Russia’s expulsion following the annexation of Crimea in 2014. 
• Economic circumstances
• When constituted, the G7 countries accounted for close to two-thirds of global GDP. 
• According to the 2017report of the accountancy firm, PwC, “The World in 2050”, they now account for less than a third of global GDP on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, and less than half on market exchange rates (MER) basis. 
• The seven largest emerging economies (E7, or “Emerging 7”), comprising Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey, account for over a third of global GDP on purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, and over a quarter on MER basis. 
• India’s economy is already the third largest in the world in PPP terms, even if way behind that of the U.S. and China.
• By 2050, the PwC Report predicts, six of the seven of the world’s best performing economies will be China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Brazil, and Russia. 
• Two other E7 countries, Mexico and Turkey, also improve their position. 
• It projects that India’s GDP will increase to $17 trillion in 2030 and $42 trillion in 2050 in PPP terms, in second place after China, just ahead of the United States. 
• This is predicated on India overcoming the challenge of COVID-19, sustaining its reform process and ensuring adequate investments in infrastructure, institutions, governance, education and health. 

The limitations of G7:

• The G7 failed to head off the economic downturn of 2007-08, which led to the rise of the G20. 
• In the short span of its existence, the G20 has provided a degree of confidence, by promoting open markets, and stimulus, preventing a collapse of the global financial system.
• The G7 has not covered itself with glory with respect to contemporary issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, the challenge of the Daesh, and the crisis of state collapse in West Asia. 
• It had announced its members would phase out all fossil fuels and subsidies, but has not so far announced any plan of action to do so. 
• The G7 countries account for 59% of historic global CO2 emissions (“from 1850 to 2010”), and their coal fired plants emit “twice more CO2 than those of the entire African continent”. 

Need for a new institution:

• The world is in a state of disorder. The global economy has stalled and COVID-19 will inevitably create widespread distress. 
• Nations need dexterity and resilience to cope with the current flux, as also a revival of multilateralism, for they have been seeking national solutions for problems that are unresolvable internally. 
• Existing international institutions have proven themselves unequal to these tasks. A new mechanism might help in attenuating them.
• A new international mechanism will have value only if it focuses on key global issues. India would be vitally interested in three: international trade, climate change, and the COVID-19 crisis. 
• A related aspect is how to push for observing international law and preventing the retreat from liberal values on which public goods are predicated. Global public health and the revival of growth and trade in a sustainable way (that also reduces the inequalities among and within nations) would pose a huge challenge. 
• Second order priorities for India would be cross-cutting issues such as counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation. 
• An immediate concern is to ensure effective implementation of the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention and the prevention of any possible cheating by its state parties by the possible creation of new microorganisms or viruses by using recombinant technologies. 

Conclusion:

• On regional issues, establishing a modus vivendi with Iran would be important to ensure that it does not acquire nuclear weapons and is able to contribute to peace and stability in Afghanistan, the Gulf and West Asia. 
• The end state in Afghanistan would also be of interest to India, as also the reduction of tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1)With reference to the World Food Safety Day, consider the following statements:
1. The second World Food Safety Day (WFSD) is being celebrated on 7 June 2020 under the theme “Food safety, everyone’s business”.
2. It was first celebrated in 2019, to strengthen commitment to scale up food safety made by the Addis Ababa Conference and the Geneva Forum in 2019 under the umbrella of “The Future of Food Safety”. 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer................

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Mains Questions:
Q.1)To what extent the expansion of G7 countries is justified to address current global issues. Comment.