What Does the G7 Do?

The G7 is an informal bloc of industrialized democracies—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK)—that meets annually to discuss issues such as global economic governance, international security, and, most recently, a U.S. framework to end the Iran war. Proponents say the forum’s small and relatively homogenous membership promotes collective decision-making, but critics note that it often lacks follow-through and excludes emerging powers.

The G7’s future has recently been challenged by tensions with Russia—previously a member from 1998 to 2014, when it was suspended for annexing Ukraine’s Crimea region—and China. Internal disagreements over trade and climate policies have further tested the group’s resilience. But responding to Moscow and Beijing has also brought the bloc closer together. In a sign of renewed cooperation, the G7 in recent years imposed coordinated sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine and launched a major global infrastructure investment program to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative. 

At the 2026 meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France, the wars in Iran and Ukraine were a prominent focus, despite the summit’s official dedication to reducing global economic imbalances. The group also issued numerous joint statements, including ones calling for a coordinated response to the Ebola outbreak in Central and East Africa and highlighting the need to secure critical minerals supply chains. However, for the second consecutive year, the summit did not produce a final joint communiqué, underscoring the deepening policy divisions among members. 

The United States, France, Italy, Japan, the UK, and West Germany formed the Group of Six in 1975 to provide a venue for noncommunist powers to address pressing economic concerns, which at the time included inflation and a recession sparked by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo. Canada joined the following year. Despite the group’s aim to focus on internal matters, Cold War politics invariably entered its agenda.

The European Union (EU) has participated fully in the G7 since 1981 as a “nonenumerated” member. It is represented by the president of the European Council, which comprises EU member states’ leaders, and the president of the European Commission, the EU’s executive body. There is no formal criteria for membership, but all participants are wealthy democracies. In 2025, the combined nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of G7 member states, not including the EU, was approximately $55 trillion—or about 45 percent of the global economy.

Unlike the United Nations or NATO, the G7 is not a formal institution with a charter and a secretariat. The presidency, which rotates annually among member states, is responsible for setting the agenda of each year’s summit and arranging logistics for it. Ministers and envoys, known as sherpas, hammer out policy initiatives at meetings that precede the gathering of national leaders. Nonmember countries are sometimes invited to participate in G7 meetings.

Russia formally joined the group in 1998, making it the G8. U.S. President Bill Clinton thought that admitting Russia would lend the country international prestige and encourage its first post-Soviet leader, Boris Yeltsin, to hew more closely to the West. Clinton also believed that membership would help mollify Russia as the NATO security alliance opened its doors to former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe.

Clinton’s decision drew some pushback. Finance ministries, in particular, were wary of coordinating economic policy with Russia, which had a relatively small economy and large public debt. But Russia’s backslide into authoritarianism under President Vladimir Putin provoked an even stronger reaction. Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 resulted in its indefinite suspension from the group. Frictions between Russia and the G7 also grew over Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, especially in the wake of chemical attacks linked to Syrian forces, and over Russian interference in U.S. and European elections.

As Russia’s intervention in Ukraine escalated, the United States and EU ratcheted up economic sanctions in an effort to further isolate Russia. But the Ukraine conflict has only intensified, with Russia launching a full-scale invasion in early 2022. In response, G7 countries have levied unprecedented sanctions. This includes phasing out imports of Russian oil and gas—a major source of revenue for Moscow—and barring Russian banks from transacting in dollars and euros. At the 2026 summit, leaders committed to further increasing pressure on Russia’s economy by strengthening sanctions, including on the country’s oil and gas sectors. 

Other measures are aimed at curtailing Russia’s military capabilities. G7 members have provided weapons to Ukraine, collectively allocating hundreds of billions of dollars in financial and military aid. In 2024, they also agreed on a new framework to aid Ukraine with profits from frozen Russian assets—allowing the bloc to loan the embattled country an additional $50 billion.

Experts hoped that the reconstituted G7 would have the potential to better facilitate collective action. Without Russia, the group was more “like-minded and capable,” according to former CFR Fellow Stewart M. Patrick. However, U.S. President Donald Trump challenged G7 unity on a number of issues during his first term, with trade and climate chief among them, contending that U.S. allies took advantage of the United States.

Trump also split with the group by calling for Russia’s readmission to the bloc; in May 2025, during his second term, Trump criticized Russia’s ousting from the group, saying the decision resulted in the war in Ukraine. Other challenges stem from China’s rise as a military and economic power, increasing nuclear proliferation, and the development of artificial intelligence (AI).

At his first G7 summit in 2017, Trump refused to commit the United States to the Paris Agreement on climate and hinted at plans to withdraw from the deal, leading other members to take the unusual step of singling out the United States in their final communiqué. In an unprecedented statement following the summit, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel questioned the cohesiveness of the transatlantic relationship, saying that for the first time since World War II, Europe “must take our fate into our own hands.”

Other leaders and many analysts were alarmed by Trump’s testy relationship with the rest of the group during his first presidency. At the same time, European leaders of the G7 have contended with a laundry list of regional challenges, including navigating the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and maintaining cohesion amid rising nationalism.

Alongside the Russia challenge, the G7 has recently sought to respond to China’s growing ambitions. In March 2025, the bloc hardened their stance on China’s “coercion” toward Taiwan. This marked a significant shift in tone by removing references to the One China policy, a framework that Beijing has interpreted to mean that Taiwan is part of China and will eventually be reunified. However, the move also notably omitted previous criticisms of Beijing’s human rights abuses in Tibet and Hong Kong, as well as its repression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region. 

The United States, Japan, and the EU have all shared grievances over China’s state-led economic model and alleged unfair trading practices. The country’s growing trade and defense ties with Russia have also caused concern. At the 2024 summit, G7 members overcame previous divisions within the group over how to respond to China; the final communiqué [PDF] referenced Beijing dozens of times, almost always as an adversary. 

Meanwhile, repeated nuclear threats by Putin, alongside an increasingly bellicose North Korea, have reinvigorated worries about nuclear weapons. Some experts fear that rapidly advancing AI could raise the risk of nuclear conflict. At the 2023 summit, the bloc unveiled the “Hiroshima AI Process,” which seeks to develop a common framework for AI governance worldwide.

Tensions in the Middle East also remain a concern. At the 2026 summit, the group issued a statement [PDF] outlining its support for an agreement between the United States and Iran and reiterating that Iran can never possess a nuclear weapon. The statement endorsed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) drafted by senior U.S. officials, stating that it “can bring peace and security for all in the region.” The statement also highlighted the vulnerability of the Strait of Hormuz and emphasized the need to diversify energy supply routes, identifying Canada as a potential alternative to expand capacity for global markets. Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian later signed a copy of the U.S.-Iran agreement in mid-June. 

In addition to its internal divisions, external dynamics have chipped away at the G7’s global influence, many analysts note. Some argue that the group lacks relevance without China and other emerging global powers. The bloc’s current priorities “risk failure” unless they garner support from other countries, wrote Laura von Daniels, head researcher of the Americas division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, after the 2023 summit. Perhaps aware of this, G7 summits often include leaders from outside the bloc. 

Whether or not China had a seat at the 2026 summit was weighed heavily by France. Beijing didn’t receive an invitation to attend, but French President Emmanuel Macron held a virtual meeting with China’s vice premier in an effort to cooperate before the EU considered a tougher trade policy at the summit. Other countries that attended included Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, and South Korea. 

Many analysts believe that the power and prestige of the G20—a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors from nineteen of the world’s largest countries, the EU, and the African Union (AU)—has surpassed that of the G7. Emerging powers including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa all belong to the G20, as does Russia, despite calls by some G7 countries for its removal. The group’s member states, not including the AU or EU, represent approximately 85 percent of global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.

Many observers argue that the G20 was most effective during the 2007–08 global financial crisis. G20 leaders first met in Washington in 2008 after the fall of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. While such consensus has been harder to come by in the years since the crisis, G20 summits have been the occasion for setting ambitious goals. At the 2014 summit, hosted by Australia, leaders adopted a plan to boost their economies by a collective 2.1 percent by 2018, which they did not achieve. In Hangzhou, China, in 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping used the summit to jointly announce their accession to the Paris Agreement.

There are also calls for new multilateral arrangements. Some experts previously endorsed an expansion of the G7 to include Australia, India, and South Korea, thereby forming a “D10” group of democracies. During his first presidency, Trump floated the idea of a Group of Eleven, comprising the D10 countries and Russia. For its part, Russia and nine other countries form the BRICS group, named for its other original members Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. The bloc admitted Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates in 2024, and Indonesia in 2025.

Many experts acknowledge that the G7’s influence has diminished. “The G7 is no longer what it once claimed to be: a steering committee of the free world,” wrote Thomas Liu, a research fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy headquartered in Toronto, Canada, in 2025. “Today, it is fast becoming a ritualized gathering of states struggling to define what they still share, what they can still do together, and why they matter.”

The 2026 summit in France showed an improvement in consensus on geopolitical issues, specifically on Ukraine. At the 2025 summit, G7 leaders could not agree on a joint declaration on Ukraine; a year later, the group agreed [PDF] to increase the delivery of air defense capacities, additional systems and interceptors, and long-range capabilities to Ukraine.  

Notably, however, the group did not produce a final joint communiqué for the second year in a row, highlighting significant rifts between G7 member states on major international issues. Instead, the group released several joint statements. The 2027 summit will take place in the United States.

This Backgrounder explains what the G20 does.

In this event, CFR experts preview the 2026 G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains, France.

For Foreign Affairs, experts outline reforms the G7 could take that would strengthen the group and global governance. 

This CFR article looks at whether sanctions against Russia are making a difference years into the war in Ukraine.

The Washington Post analyzes how an iconic photo of President Trump and other G7 leaders in 2018 reflected the geopolitics of the time.t