British PM Boris Johnson invites PM Modi to G7 in June 2021.

Why In News?

He has invited the Indian Prime Minister to the UK for the G7 summit in June this year. Johnson also reiterated his plan to visit India ahead of the G7 summit.

He was supposed to be the Chief Guest on Republic Day 2021 but he cancelled his visit due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

The proposed summit will be the first in-person G-7 summit in almost two years, as it will be held in the English region of Cornwall from June 11 to 13. Besides India, Australia and South Korea have also been invited as guest countries as a testament to UK’s commitment to ensuring multilateral institutions better reflect today’s world.

PM Modi had attended the G-7 summit in Biarritz in France in August 2019 and was also invited for the 2020 summit hosted by the US which could not take place due to the pandemic.

This is expected to be Modi’s second G-7 summit; his predecessor Manmohan Singh had attended the G-8 summit (it became G-7 from G-8 with the expulsion of Russia in 2014) five times between 2005 and 2009 through his first term in UPA 1.

Background:

The G7, which includes UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA and the EU, is the only forum where the world’s most influential and open societies and advanced economies gather for discussions.

Historical Background of G-7

• 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 OPEC imposed an embargo against Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, and the United States, shocked their economies.
• Although the French were spared the embargo, the fear of it made France to invite finance ministers of the US, Germany, Japan, Italy, and UK, for an informal discussion on global issues.
• This transformed into a G7 Summit of the heads of government with the inclusion of Canada in 1976.
• It does not have a permanent headquarter and the decisions taken by leaders during annual summits are non-binding.
• On the initiative of U.S. President Bill Clinton and British PM Tony Blair, the G7 became the G8, with the Russian Federation joining the club in 1998. 
• However, in 2014, Russia was suspended from the group after the annexation of Crimea and tensions in Ukraine.