New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attending the G7 Summit, which is being held at Kananaskis in Canada’s Alberta. This tour is his first go to to the nation since tensions flared between New Delhi and Ottawa over the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
It comes on the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who’s internet hosting this 12 months’s G7 summit within the mountain-ringed resort city. PM Modi has joined leaders from the world’s richest democracies, in addition to heads of outreach nations and world organizations for scheduled discussions starting from vitality technique and synthetic intelligence to geopolitical flashpoints and financial safety.
So, What Precisely Is the G7?
The G7 is a bunch of main industrialised international locations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the USA. The European Union (EU) additionally has a everlasting seat on the desk, although it isn’t formally thought-about a full member.
The group began taking form again within the Seventies when the oil disaster rattled world economies. Leaders wanted a solution to converse instantly and coordinate responses outdoors the bureaucratic drag of worldwide establishments. Over time, that casual gathering advanced into one of the influential platforms for tackling world points from monetary meltdowns and local weather change to wars, pandemics and now, tech disruption.
G7 summits are held every year, with every nation taking turns internet hosting and setting the agenda. The group doesn’t move binding resolutions just like the United Nations, however what it says or doesn’t say usually influences world monetary markets, coverage instructions and diplomatic stances for months to comply with.
Who Will get a Seat on the Desk?
Whereas the G7 itself is a tightly held membership, every host nation extends invites to pick out non-member international locations and organisations. These friends normally mirror the summit’s primary themes or areas of strategic curiosity. For instance, rising economies, African nations or regional powerhouses could be referred to as in relying on what’s on the docket that 12 months.
India has grow to be an everyday presence at these summits in recent times. Its rising affect in worldwide affairs and its positioning as a key voice for the World South has given it a outstanding seat among the many outreach nations.
On the 2024 version hosted by Italy, friends included international locations like Türkiye, Brazil, Argentina and a number of African Union representatives – signaling a shift towards a extra inclusive and globally engaged G7.
Now in 2025, beneath Canada’s management, that development continues with India as soon as once more within the highlight.
The place’s It Taking place?
The summit is being held in Kananaskis, a forest-ringed alpine resort space in Alberta, simply southwest of Calgary. For these following G7 historical past, the situation may sound acquainted – Kananaskis final hosted the summit in 2002 through the post-9/11 world safety pivot.
It’s no accident that Canada picked this spot once more. The distant location permits tight safety management, privateness for negotiations and a symbolic return to critical, mountain-air diplomacy. It’s also logistically sound as a result of main airports, lodging services and press zones are all close by.
Preparatory conferences had been already held in numerous elements of the nation. International ministers met in Charlevoix, Quebec, again in March, and monetary leaders gathered in Banff, Alberta, final month.
What’s On the Agenda This 12 months?
This 12 months’s gathering comes at a tense second on the world stage. Ongoing violence between Israel and Iran has pushed safety discussions to the forefront. Add to {that a} resurgence of financial nationalism, tensions round AI regulation and questions on vitality transition pathways have gotten the summit overflowing with urgency.
Broadly, the three core themes this 12 months are – world safety and disaster response, financial stability and clear vitality funding and cooperation on AI, quantum computing and digital infrastructure.
Leaders are digging deep into the way forward for crucial mineral provide chains, local weather financing, cyber safety and methods to manipulate new-age applied sciences with out stifling innovation.
There’s one main departure from previous summits. There is not going to be a closing communique. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has opted for a Chair’s Abstract as an alternative. That alternative displays how numerous and at occasions, conflicting the views on the desk are – significantly round contentious points just like the Gaza battle, information privateness and commerce disputes involving the USA and Europe.
Modi’s Function within the Combine
Modi’s presence on the summit serves a number of functions. For one, it permits India to instantly form conversations that will in any other case be dominated by Western voices. But it surely additionally acts as a smooth reset in India-Canada relations, which hit a low final 12 months over public allegations made by Canada linking Indian brokers to the killing of Nijjar.
Whereas nobody is anticipating a dramatic diplomatic breakthrough within the public eye, Modi’s one-on-one conferences, significantly with Carney, Trump and leaders from Europe, might assist ease tensions and open doorways for future cooperation on commerce, vitality and safety.
India can also be anticipated to current its perspective on local weather justice, South-South cooperation and world tech governance – points the place it has positioned itself as each a bridge and a pacesetter.