By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is going to participate in the G7 Leaders’ Summit at the invitation of the host, Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The Summit is scheduled to take place on Monday, 27 June 2022.
In a statement presidency said alongside the G7 member states, South Africa is one of five non-member states that have been invited to the summit.
“Germany has indicated that it will seek to strengthen the G7’s responsibility for working towards “the global common good”, thus expanding cooperation with all partners, especially within the framework of the United Nations and the G20, based on a fair and rules-based multilateral system.”
“Reflecting the outward-looking approach of recent Presidencies of the G7, guest leaders are invited to join outreach sessions within the summit agenda. In order to ensure that this involvement is meaningful, Germany has also invited international organisations and guest experts in specific outreach sessions, whilst preserving space and time for G7 member-only agendas, discussions and negotiations,”read the statement.
South Africa will participate in two outreach sessions scheduled for 27 June 2022. War, climate change, hunger, poverty and health will be on the agenda of the G7 summit.
Collectively, the G7 countries represent approximately 40% of global gross domestic product and 10% of the world’s population.
The G7 was formally established in 1975 following the financial crisis brought about by the 1973 oil crisis. In an attempt to improve the coordination of global economic and financial policy, the initial meetings were held by the Finance Ministers of the world’s five most industrialized and developed countries – France, Germany, Japan, the US, and the UK, who were later joined by Canada and Italy at a Presidential level, to form the G7.