PARIS: France will host the leaders of India, South Korea, Brazil and Kenya at the G7 leaders' summit in Evian-les-Bains in June, a move Paris says is aimed at broadening support for its goal of correcting global economic imbalances.
At the core of France's push is a drive to prevent a "massive financial crisis" by urging China - which will be notable by its absence - to boost domestic demand and reduce its destabilising exports, and by calling on the US to curb its deficits and on Europe to produce more and save less.
Those long-term ambitions risk being overshadowed, however, by more immediate pressures, with the summit unfolding against the backdrop of an energy shock caused by the US and Israeli war on Iran, while the relevance of the G7 itself is being increasingly questioned.
"We don't know where the Iran crisis will be by June," an adviser to President Emmanuel Macron said. "However it evolves, we will have to address its energy and economic consequences."
China will not attend the summit on June 15-17 and continues to question the legitimacy of the G7 as a "club of rich countries", French officials said.
France, which had tried to invite Beijing according to diplomatic sources, will "engage" China through separate channels, an official said, adding that it was also in China's interest to avoid a confrontation.
"The risk for China is to see global markets, and European markets, closing off to it," the official said.
The countries invited instead are all democracies and market economies that play by the rules of international cooperation, he added.
Adding to the uncertainty is whether US President Donald Trump, whose use of tariff threats has rattled allies and rivals alike, not to mention the world's markets, will attend.
"I won't make any predictions, but if Trump doesn't come, it also makes sense - it's a new international reality and we need to organise ourselves accordingly," the official said. - Reuters
