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Tuesday, March 25, 2014

G8 becomes the G7 as leaders kick Russia out Monday March 24,2014

Russia was last night Monday March 24,2014 suspended from the elite G8 group of leading economies, who said they could not accept its breach of international law. 

David Cameron, Barack Obama and other world leaders said it was up to Vladimir Putin to 'change course' over Ukraine or his country will remain excluded indefinitely.

Leaders of the remaining countries – Britain, the US, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and Japan, who are calling themselves the G7 – agreed to meet again without Russia until it was ready to engage in 'meaningful discussion'.
G7 leaders clockwise from left, EC president Herman Van Rompuy, Canadian PM Stephen Harper, French President Francois Hollande, British PM David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, Italian PM Matteo Renzi and EC president Jose Manuel Barroso
A G7 statement released last night said: 'This group came together because of shared beliefs and shared responsibilities. Russia's actions in recent weeks are not consistent with them.'
The communique 'condemns Russia's illegal attempt to annex Crimea' as 'contravention of international law.' 

US President Barack Obama on Monday March 24,2014 has called an emergency Group of Seven summit in The Hague,Netherlands to discuss what steps to take against Russia over Crimea, with Russian troops on Monday morning seizing another Ukrainian military base on the peninsula.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- minus current G8 chairman Russia -- must discuss the permanent expulsion of Russia from the group, to which it was admitted in 1998 as its reward for choosing a democratic post-Soviet course. 

The US and six other economic powers also scrapped the G8 summit to be hosted by Russia in Sochi in June 2014 to build pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin against his military action in Ukraine

After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia eagerly sought to join the tight circle of the world's top economies, eventually gaining entry in 1998
Having Russia as part of that group since 1998 was meant to signal cooperation between East and West, and its exclusion inevitably raises new echoes of Cold War-style rivalry.

About Group of Eight(G8)

The Group of Eight (G8) is a forum for the Govts of 8 of the world's 11 largest national economies(excluding Brazil at 6th, India at 9th and China at 2nd) -
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • UK 
  • USA 
  • Canada
  • Russia

The forum originated with a 1975 summit hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, the Federal Republic of Germany,Italy,Japan ,UK and USA thus leading to the name Group of Six or G6

The summit became known as the Group of Seven or G7 the following year in 1976 with the addition of Canada 

In 1997,Russia was added to the group which then became known as the G8 

Collectively, the G8 nations comprise 50.1% of 2012 Global Nominal GDP and 40.9% of Global GDP(PPP) 

Each calendar year, the responsibility of hosting the G8 rotates through the member states in the following order: France, United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada


The holder of the Presidency sets the agenda, hosts the summit for that year, and determines which ministerial meetings will take place. 

Lately, both France and the United Kingdom have expressed a desire to expand the group to include five developing countries, referred to as the Outreach Five (O5) or the Plus Five -
  • Brazil (6th country in the world by GDP
  • People's Republic of China (2nd country in the world by GDP
  • India (9th country in the world by GDP
  • Mexico and
  • South Africa 
These countries have participated as guests in previous meetings, which are sometimes called G8+5 

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