Speech about the G7

Today I presented a speech in Toastmasters Club about the G7. Here are some more facts from the speech. G7 members are advanced economies. G7 came into being from an ad hoc gathering of finance ministers in 1973. It has since become a formal, high profile venue for discussing and coordinating solutions to major global issues, especially in areas of trade, security, economics and climate change. Each member nation's head of state or government along with European Union officials meet annually at the G7 summit. Representatives of other states and international organizations are invited. The G7 is not based on a treaty and has no permanent secretariat or office. It is organised through a presidency that rotates annually among the member states with the presiding state setting the group's priorities and hosting the summit. Italy presides for 2024. The G7 countries together have a population of 780 million people or almost 10 percent of the world population and comprises around 50 percent of world wide nominal net worth. The G7 was founded primarily to facilitate shared macroeconomic initiatives in response to contemperory economic problems. In the 1970's it was the energy crisis. In the 1980's it broadened the areas of concentration to include issues of international security and human rights. It concerned itself with the ongoing Iran-Iraq war and the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In the 1990's it launched a debt relief program for 42 heavily indebted poor countries. At the 1999 summit the group helped launch the G20. The G20 consists of the G7, the European Union and 13 other emerging market economies and seeks to promote dialogue between the industrialised countries and emerging market economies. At the turn of the 21st century the G7 began engaging with the developing world focusing on debt reduction. In 2022 G7 leaders were invited to attend an extraordinary summit of NATO called in response to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In 2024 the G7 nations addressed issues of climate change and trade monopolies by China. The pope who attended the 2024 meeting gave a speech on the threat of AI on education and human decision making. In conclusion I would like to say the world has seen the emergence of a large number of regional associations or groups of countries such as G7. A few examples are: NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation United Nations. SAARC or South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation ASEAN Association of South East Asian Nations. These country groups represent special interests of the member countries within the umbrella of democratic ideals. They promote dialogue, exchange of ideas, responses to geo political issues, and the finding of solutions to challenges faced by the world.