In the 1970s, the economic situation of the world's major capitalist countries deteriorated. The successive "dollar crisis," "oil crisis," the collapse of the "Bretton Woods system," and the severe economic crisis of 1973–1975 left Western nations in distress. To collectively address global economic and monetary crises, coordinate economic policies, and revitalize Western economies, France initiated a high-level summit in early July 1975, attended by France, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, West Germany, and Italy. Canada (1976) and Russia (1998) subsequently joined. The heads of state of the G8 member countries meet once a year, known as the G8 Summit.
Because the G8 summit is a meeting convened by Western capitalist countries, and China is a socialist country, China is not included.
List of G7 Member Countries
The Group of Seven (G7) Summit is a mechanism for the heads of state or government of the seven most industrialized nations (the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Canada) to consult and meet on major issues of common concern.
The so-called Group of Eight (G8) refers to the seven major Western industrialized nations—the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan (commonly known as the G7)—plus Russia. Strictly speaking, it is not a rigid international organization and is colloquially referred to as the "rich countries' club." Among the eight countries, the seven countries other than Russia are the core members, which constitute the former Group of Seven (G7).
It has played an important role in safeguarding the interests of these developed countries, while objectively contributing to the exploration of major power cooperation and global governance mechanisms in the context of globalization.