The Group of Eight (G8) was an intergovernmental political forum from 1997 to 2014, formed by incorporating Russia into the G7. The G8 became the G7 again after Russia was expelled in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea. The forum originated with a 1975 summit hosted by France that brought together representatives of six governments: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, thus leading to the name Group of Six or G6. The summit came to be known as the "Group of Seven" in 1976 with the addition of Canada. The European Union (or predecessor institutions such as the European Economic Community) was represented at the G8 since the 1980s as a "nonenumerated" participant, but originally could not host or chair summits. Russia was added to the political forum from 1997, which the following year became known as the G8. In 2005, the UK government initiated the practice of inviting five leading emerging markets – Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa – to participate in the G8 meetings that came to be known as G8+5. "G8" referred to the member states in aggregate or to the annual summit meeting of the G8 heads of government. Each calendar year, the responsibility of hosting the G8 was rotated 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. G8 ministers also met throughout the year, such as the G8 finance ministers (who meet four times a year), G8 foreign ministers, or G8 environment ministers. The G8 countries were not strictly the largest in the world nor the highest-income per capita, but they did represent the largest high-income countries. With the G20 major economies growing in stature since the 2008 Washington summit, world leaders from the group announced at their Pittsburgh summit in September 2009 that the group would replace the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations. Collectively, in 2012 the G8 nations comprised 50.1 percent of 2012 global nominal GDP, 40.9 percent of global GDP (PPP) and 60.9 percent of 2024 global stock market capitalization. In March 2014 Russia was suspended indefinitely following the annexation of Crimea, whereupon the political forum name reverted to G7. The 2014 G7 summit was hosted and chaired by the European Union instead of Russia.
History
Following 1994's G7 summit in Naples, Russian officials held separate meetings with leaders of the G7 after the group's summits. This informal arrangement was dubbed the Political 8 (P8)—or, colloquially, the G7+1. At the invitation of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President Bill Clinton, President Boris Yeltsin was invited first as a guest observer, later as a full participant. It was seen as a way to encourage Yeltsin with his capitalist reforms. Russia formally joined the group in 1998, resulting in the Group of Eight, or G8.
Focus of G8 After the 2008 financial crisis, the G20 replaced the G8 as the world's main international economic council. Nevertheless, the G8 retained its relevance as a "steering group for the West", with special significance appointed to Japan. The 40th summit was the first time the European Union was able to host and chair a summit. A major focus of the G8 since 2009 has been the global supply of food. At the 2009 L'Aquila summit, the G8's members promised to contribute $22 billion to the issue. By 2015, 93% of funds had been disbursed to projects like sustainable agriculture development and adequate emergency food aid assistance. At the 2012 summit, President Barack Obama asked G8 leaders to adopt the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative to "help the rural poor produce more food and sell it in thriving local and regional markets as well as on the global market". Ghana became one of the first six African countries to sign up to the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in 2012. There was, however, almost no knowledge of the G8 initiative among some stakeholders, including farmers, academics and agricultural campaign groups. Confusion surrounding the plans was made worse, critics say, by "a dizzying array of regional and national agriculture programmes that are inaccessible to ordinary people".
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