News analysis: G7's future impact depends on its roll in promoting win-win situation

This year's G7 summit kicked off on Sunday in a castle in the German state of Bavaria, with leaders from the seven industrialized countries not only facing tens of thousands of demonstrators, but confronting a daunting task of rediscovering their own position and maintaining influence in the ever changing world.

   Due to the rise of emerging countries and the resulting global power shifts, the influence and the roll of the G7 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the U.S. - in solving issues of global role are declining, said Xuewu Gu,  Director of Center for Global Studies of Bonn University in Germany.

   Liu Jiangyong, Vice Director of the Institute of Contemporary International Relations at Qinghua University, said during the process of globalization and informatization, there have been great changes in the international system, and G7 itself has also undergone some changes.

   "It is the inevitable result of tensions between the United States and Russia that G8 becomes the G7, which has weakened G7's influence," he said.

   After the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine last year, Russia was then suspended from the elite G8 group of leading economies.

   A few days before this year's G7 Summit, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for return of Russia to the G7.

   "We need Russia to settle the frozen conflicts in Europe, Syria, Iraq and Libya, and also in dealing with the issue of the Iranian nuclear program," he said.

Participants of the G7 summit (L-R) President of the European Council Donald Tusk, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker have a group photo taken at the Elmau Castle near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, southern Germany, on June 7, 2015. Germany hosts a G7 summit here on June 7 and June 8. (Xinhua/Zhu Sheng)

 

However, according to the experts, G8 is hard to come back.

   Ruan Zongze, Vice President of China Institute of International Studies believes that Russia won't return to G7 in the near future.

   "Because G7's influence has shrunk, so it would not bring much for Russia to return. Secondly, it's difficult to improve relations between Russia and the West," explained Ruan, while adding that Russia will put more emphasis on the role of G20, BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and so on.

   After financial crisis in 2008, G20 summit has played a growing role in discussing global topics and coordinating solutions, which set a question mark to the existence of G7.

   "I think, as long as it helps to make the world a more open, more peaceful and more secure place, then the G7 and G20 are not in a competing relationship, but rather complement each other," said Liu.

   G7's impact on international affairs in the future depends on whether it is able to promote sustainable security and sustainable development in the world, as well as to promote peaceful cooperation and win-win situations, he said.