Calgary, Alberta: One of the world’s leading experts on the G7 has called for India to be included in the global group to make it more reflective of the current state of the world.
Professor John Kirton, director of the G7 Research Group which was formed in 1987, said, “We do need India. I publicly said and wrote, it should be a full member in this club of major market democracies.”
He said he has held that view since 2005, but it was even more “obvious now” given that India has developed critical capabilities in sectors that the G7 is engaged with.
“India is at centre of priorities of the summit on the whole,” he felt. “It’s one of the world’s most resilient democracies,” he added.
The G7 Research Group was formed prior to Canada hosting the summit in 1988 in Toronto and Kirton has been present at the global events, and is currently in Banff, the resort in the Canadian Rockies adjoining Kananaskis where the leaders will meet.
He said that the final list of outreach partners, including India, for the summit this year was “really a G7 plus, and in a major way, a purely democratic G20, without China or Russia”.
He described as “admirable” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to invite his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to the summit for the outreach session on June 17.
“It shows the ambition of the host with partners from the most powerful democratic countries, from the global north and the global south,” Professor Kirton noted.
The G7 outreach session is scheduled for Tuesday and will begin with a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. All partners nations will participate in a session on energy security. “Discussions with outreach partners will focus on the future of energy security, including diversification, technology, infrastructure and investment, to ensure access and affordability in a changing world,” the official agenda stated.
In fact, Carney kicked off his bilateral meetings on the margins of the G7 on Sunday in Calgary with the leaders of two outreach nations, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who will host the G20 summit later this year.
