Trump Wants To Expand G7; Invites Modi To This Year's Summit

In a telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, the latter has extended his invitation to India to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in the US later this year.

"President Trump spoke about the US Presidency of the Group of Seven, and conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India. In this context, he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to attend the next G-7 Summit to be held in USA," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday said.

The G-7 or 'Group of Seven' was formed in 1975 by top economies of the world, at the time, as a forum to discuss pressing issues in the world. It includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US. Canada joined in 1976 and the European Union began attending the summit from 1977.

"Prime Minister Modi commended President Trump for his creative and far-sighted approach, acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world. The Prime Minister said that India would be happy to work with the US and other countries to ensure the success of the proposed Summit," the PMO's statement further said.

On Saturday, Trump said he was postponing until September the summit that had been scheduled for late June at Camp David, the US president's country retreat. Announcing the postponement, he said it was a "very outdated group" and does not "properly represents what's going on in the world". He expressed his desire to want to invite Australia, Russia, South Korea and India to the meeting.