The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi is in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19 to 21 where he represents India as an invited country at the 49th G-7 Summit. The G-7 Summit is a platform for India to take its many multilateral engagements forward. A few facts about G-7 may be mentioned here for the benefit of readers. The points have been collected from the website, www.g7hiroshima.go.jp/en/summit.
The G7 Summit is an international forum held every year for the leaders of the G7 member States viz., France, the USA, the U.K., Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada (in order of rotating presidency), and the European Union (EU) and India is an invited country at the 49th G-7 Summit.
At the G7 Summit, the leaders share fundamental values such as freedom, democracy, and human rights, exchange views on important challenges the international community is facing at that time, such as the global economy, regional affairs, and various global issues, and issue a document as an outcome of such discussions.
It may be mentioned here that in the 1970s, developed countries that faced various challenges such as the Nixon shock (1971) and the first oil crisis (1973) began recognizing the need to create a forum to comprehensively discuss policy coordination of macro economy, currency, trade, and energy, among others, at a leader’s level. Against this backdrop, proposed by then-French President Giscard d’Estaing, the first Summit was held in November 1975 at the Chateau de Rambouillet (located on the outskirts of Paris), with participation from six countries—France, the U.S.A., the U.K., Germany, Japan, and Italy. Since then, Summits have been taking place annually with rotating Presidencies. In 2023, as the G7 Presidency, Japan is hosting the G7 Hiroshima Summit. It has significant implications that the leaders of the G7 gather for discussions in Hiroshima, a city that has recovered from the catastrophic damage by an atomic bomb and which continues to seek lasting world peace.
According to the Prime Minister of Japan Kishida, the world is facing an unprecedented crisis by aggression against Ukraine and the growing risk of use of weapons of mass destruction, at the G7 Hiroshima Summit in 2023, Japan would like to demonstrate G7’s strong determination to categorically deny military aggressions, any threats of nuclear weapons, as well as attempts to overthrow the international order with historical significance. From such viewpoints, the Government of Japan decided to host the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, considering Hiroshima as the most fitting location to express its commitment to peace. I visited Hiroshima in the month of March 2023 and I was very distressed to watch the awful effects of Atom Bomb. We all know the first Atom Bomb was dropped in Hiroshima depicting the most cruelty of human suffering. I visited many countries in the world and across India but I was in pain and ‘my eyes filled with tears’ after visiting Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (Park) in March 2023. During the Second World War, the USA on August 6, 1945, dropped the first Atom Bomb on Hiroshima, and then on August 9, 1945, another Atom Bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. When I visited Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (Park word was used), I observed the worst suffering of human beings through photographs, documentary films, terrifying photographs of survivors, the awful effects of explosions, and artifacts such as melted glass, deformed bicycles, charred clothes, etc., portrayed the unimaginable, unbelievable cruelty created by human beings against innocent human beings.
Anyway, for the G-7, engaging with India is imperative for several reasons (thediplomat.com/2023/05). First, with a GDP of $2.66 trillion, India’s economy is larger than the three member countries of the G-7 – France, Italy, and Canada. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world and is expected to grow at 5.9 percent in 2023-2024. The World Bank has mentioned that India’s growth rate is the highest among the seven largest emerging-market and developing economies. It is pertinent o mention that India surpassed China as the most populous country in the world. With 68 percent of the population of working age (15-64 years) and 65 percent of the population under the age of 35, India offers a young and abundant skilled and semi-skilled workforce. Hope, G-7 and G-20 will help the people of the world to develop economically with good and sustainable earning of per capita income vis-à-vis world should be free from War.
Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad
