U.S. scholars call for Group of 7 membership expansion to include Korea, Australia

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U.S. scholars call for Group of 7 membership expansion to include Korea, Australia

The road that leads into the Kananaskis Country golf course on June 9, where the leaders of the Group of 7 will meet from June 15 to 17 in Alberta, Canada. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

The road that leads into the Kananaskis Country golf course on June 9, where the leaders of the Group of 7 will meet from June 15 to 17 in Alberta, Canada. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
Prominent U.S. scholars have called for the membership expansion of the Group of 7 major industrialized countries to include Korea and Australia, as they asserted the need for reform to better equip the group to play a greater role in global governance and "meet the moment."
 
Victor Cha, president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), CSIS President and CEO John Hamre and John Ikenberry, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, made the call in a Foreign Affairs article published Wednesday.
 

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The article, titled "How Global Governance Can Survive: With the Right Reforms, the Group of 7 Can Sustain the Rules-Based Order," comes as new Korean President Lee Jae-myung plans to attend the Group of 7 summit slated to take place in Alberta, Canada, from Sunday through Tuesday.
 
The three scholars made the case for Group of 7 reform, stressing that Group of 7 members need to bolster their ranks, streamline their procedures and strengthen the group's legitimacy "in the eyes of the world" in order to turn the body into one that can sustain the rules-based order.
  
"Australia and Korea should be at the front of the line to join the Group of 7. Group of 7 representatives opine that any new members must be responsible stewards of the international economy, be capable of and committed to assuming this role, and, importantly, have the trust of the other Group of 7 members," they said in the piece.
 
"Canberra and Seoul clearly meet this standard," they added.
 
They noted that Korea is a "technological and cultural powerhouse" and has the largest economy among non-G-7 industrialized democracies except for India and Brazil, and that Australia has a per capita GDP larger than all Group of 7 states except the United States.
 
They also underscored that both Seoul and Canberra have already taken leading roles in addressing issues that preoccupy the Group of 7.
 
"Australia has shone as an example of a country standing up to economic coercion by China. Australia is also a key supplier of critical minerals to other industrialized democracies," they said.
 
A bus drives down Highway 40 that leads into Kananaskis Country on June 9, where the leaders of the G7 will meet from June 15 to 17, 2025 in Alberta, Canada. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

A bus drives down Highway 40 that leads into Kananaskis Country on June 9, where the leaders of the G7 will meet from June 15 to 17, 2025 in Alberta, Canada. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

 
"Korea is a major provider of economic and indirect military assistance to Ukraine, and it is a critical player, along with the United States and Japan, in protecting the lead in critical emerging semiconductor chip technology in the West's competition with China."
 
Calling the Indo-Pacific the "center of gravity" in global commerce and global politics, the scholars said that adding Korea and Australia to the Group of 7 could boost the representation of the wider Indo-Pacific, giving the region's interests a stronger voice than Japan can offer alone.
 
Currently, the Group of 7 comprises the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain.

Yonhap
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