Germany takes on this day and throughout the year as president of the so-called Group of Seven (G7), which brings together the major economic powers of the West and Japan, and which will meet under the new command of Chancellor Social Democrat Olaf Scholz in June in the Bavarian region.

The G7, created in 1975, used to be known as the G8, but in 2014, following the annexation of Crimea, it suspended Russia’s participation. Moreover, it does not include economic powers such as China, India, South Africa or Brazil.

According to German news agency DPA, the new Chancellor Scholz will receive the G7 Heads of State and Government between June 26 and 28 at Elmau Castle, in the Bavarian Alps, in a meeting whose agenda will focus on climate change, the fight against the pandemic and strengthening international cooperation and democracy around the world.

“We will use our presidency to make this group of nations pioneers, pioneers of a climate-neutral economy and a just world,” Scholz promised in his New Year’s address, adding: “International cooperation is important. In a world that will soon have 10,000 million people, vote we will only be heard if we act together with many other people.”

It is not yet clear whether the German government will maintain the same direction the UK has given it during its 2021 presidency.

With the Boris Johnson administration at the helm, the G7 wants to present itself as the other side of Russia and China, two powers that the United States has explicitly identified as major rivals to its national interests and its allies.

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A retreat.

For this reason, Johnson invited other powers such as India, South Korea, South Africa and Australia to the final summit, as a gesture to expand, albeit informally and temporarily, the selected group.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock announced in a recent interview with DPA that they would invite countries “that maintain economic development along with shared values ​​such as freedom and the rule of law” to the previous foreign ministers’ meeting. He did not give names, although he stated that they could be countries of the African and Pacific region.

The June meeting will not only mark the highest point of the German presidency in the G7, but will also be the largest international meeting to be chaired by Social Democrat Scholz, who has just taken over as German Government, after about a decade. and Angela Merkel’s uninterrupted Conservative term. (Telam)