on | Why G7 is past its expiry date – Firstpost

The G7 summit in Canada this week marks the 50th anniversary of the group’s founding. Formed in 1975, members of the G7 represented at the time the world’s seven largest economies: the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Japan, Italy and Canada.

G7 members recognise that the group risks being seen as increasingly irrelevant in 2025. To counter this, G7 summits have in recent years invited non-members from Asia, Africa and South America.

This year’s summit, from June 15-17, is being attended by India, Mexico, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea and Ukraine, swelling the gathering to 16 countries. That makes it a near replica of the G20. The two notable absentees even as wars rage in Europe and the Middle East: China and Russia.

Host Canada has chosen the invitees with a specific geopolitical agenda. The invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for example, came with a caveat to include a dialogue on law enforcement accountability – code for blaming India for the murder of Khalistani separatist and local gangster Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023.

Modi’s visit to Cyprus on his way to the G7 summit in Canada was tactical. Cyprus takes over the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) Council in January 2026. It is the designated beachhead in Europe for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) which runs through ship, road and rail from India to Cyprus, entry point to the EU.

The Cyprus visit also sends a message to Turkey which has for decades been involved in a bitter dispute with Cyprus over divisions between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. Joining the G7 summit in Canada only at its midpoint on the second day is a clear statement of India’s sharpening geopolitical priorities.

White Canadians are British loyalist-settlers who fled north during the US war of independence against colonial Britain. The US declared independence in 1776. Canada did not.

Canada’s head of state remains Britain’s King Charles III. Canadian prime ministers still take their oath of office from the country’s governor-general who is King Charles’ official representative in Canada.

When US President Donald Trump said Canada would be better off as America’s 51st state, he was hinting at Canada’s limited sovereignty.

When they fled north after the US seized independence from Britain in 1776, White Canadian colonial-settlers used the notorious “Doctrine of Discovery” to occupy indigenous peoples’ land — land on which Native Americans had lived for millennia.

The Canadian Museum of Human Rights, which opened to the public in 2014, explained the Doctrine of Discovery: “The Doctrine of Discovery is a legal and religious concept that has been used for centuries to justify Christian colonial conquest. It advanced the idea that European peoples, culture and religion were superior to all others.

“The Doctrine of Discovery was set out in a series of declarations by popes in the 15th century. These declarations (known as ‘papal bulls’) provided religious authority for Christian empires to invade and subjugate non‐Christian lands, peoples and sovereign nations, impose Christianity on these populations, and claim their resources. These papal bulls were written at a time when European empires were embarking on widescale colonial expansion.

“The Doctrine of Discovery is still an important legal concept in Canada today even though it was written hundreds of years ago. Both French and English colonial powers in what would later be known as Canada used the Doctrine of Discovery to claim Indigenous lands and force their cultural and religious beliefs on Indigenous peoples. Once Canada was created, the Doctrine of Discovery influenced the imposition of national, colonial laws on Indigenous peoples. This is because it denies the validity of longstanding systems of Indigenous governance and sovereignty.

“In the Canadian context, the Doctrine of Discovery has led to the seizure of Indigenous lands and the displacement of Indigenous peoples. In March 2023, the Vatican officially repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery. In a statement, the Vatican admitted that the papal bulls on which the doctrine is based ‘did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples.’ The Vatican’s statement denied that the Doctrine of Discovery was a teaching of the Catholic Church and claimed that these documents had been ‘manipulated for political purposes’ by colonial empires to justify their treatment of Indigenous people.”

India and Canada

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says he wants to repair Canada’s relationship with India that his predecessor Justine Trudeau ruined. But Carney’s party is beholden to the same Khalistani separatists that Trudeau appeased.

Canada’s political leadership continues to turn a blind eye to threats by Khalistani terrorists against Indian diplomats in Canada. To deflect from its complicity in appeasing Khalistani extremists in order to stay in power, Canada’s government uses the Nijjar case to allege India’s involvement in his murder.

New Delhi expelled 40 Canadian diplomats from India after Canada could not back up its allegations with evidence. Two years later, credible evidence has still not emerged of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s murder, which was a likely consequence of local inter-gang rivalry.

Modi will make two points clear to Carney at the summit this week: One, the Nijjar case is a fabricated diversion; and two, Canada needs India more than India needs Canada. Indian students, for example, are a rich source of revenue for Canada whose economy is reeling from inflation and unemployment.

Modi’s meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the summit will offer clues on the evolving India-US dynamic. By leaning toward Pakistan and its Islamist army chief General Asim Munir, the US has telegraphed a message to India: Pakistan is our mercenary partner; it kills or extradites terrorists targeting the West (ISIS and al-Qaeda); we don’t interfere when Pakistan arms, funds and abets terrorists (JeM and LeT) who target India.

What will weigh on the minds of G7 members in Canada this week is their declining influence. By 2027, only one member of the G7 — the US — will be among the world’s three largest economies. It will also mark the first time in 300 years that no country from Europe will be among the three leading economies in the world. When the G7 was founded in 1975, few thought the shift in global economic power would be so swift and so decisive.

Four of the G7 members built their national wealth through colonial conquest: Britain, France, Germany and Italy. All four countries had colonies in Africa and two, Britain and France, had colonies globally. The US and Canada are settler-colonies with gruesome histories of slavery and occupation of Native American land.

The seventh member, Japan, briefly colonised Manchuria in China (1931-1945) and Korea (1910-1945). It has apologised to both for its brutalities. The other six G7 members have neither apologised nor paid reparations for colonial depredations and the horrific two century-long, British-run transatlantic slave trade from Africa to North America.

These will not be part of the discussions at the 51st G7 summit in Canada. Instead, India will be vilified in private pull-aside conversations for a Khalistani criminal’s murder it had no role in.

It will, however, underscore why the G7 has long passed its expiry date.

The writer is an editor, author and publisher. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.