1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Russia's war in UkraineIsrael-Hamas warIndia elections
Politics

Quadriga - G7 - No Putin, no point?

June 4, 2015

When the G7 summit takes place at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria on June 7-8 all eyes will be on the host German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She'll be welcoming the heads of many of the world's leading industrial states. But does the G7 really represent the big seven most powerful nations? With some notable emerging economies excluded the G7 is losing relevance say some experts.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Fbsz

And with Russia sidelined due to the Ukraine conflict is the club further weakened? All this makes a display of common purpose from the leaders of the most powerful liberal democracies more important than ever.

Deutschland Schloss Elmau G7 Gipfel
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Warmuth

Topics on the agenda of this year's summit - with the motto "Think Ahead, Act Together” – range from climate protection and global health to traditional economic issues like the controversial free trade agreement TTIP.

Niederlande G7-Treffen Krisengipfel in Den Haag Gruppenbild
Image: Reuters

Ahead of the summit two former German Chancellors and German business groups caused a stir by criticizing the exclusion of Russian President Vladimir Putin from the get-together.

Have your say: G7 - No Putin, no point? quadriga(at)dw.de

Our guests:

04.06.2015 DW Quadriga Studiogast Donata Riedel
07.05.2015 DW Quadriga Studiogast Leithäuser, Johannes
14.05.2015 Quadriga Posener, Alan

Donata Riedel, economics journalist with Handelsblatt. She says: "Russia always was an outsider in the club of the G7."

Johannes Leithäuser, former London correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and now reports for the FAZ from Berlin. He says: "G20 is more honest than G7."

Alan Posener, German-British journalist, author at the daily newspaper Die Welt. He says: "The G7 was a silly idea, a kind of world economic government, it can't work."