Founding of G7

The Group of Seven began as a meeting in November 1975 at the Chateau de Rambouillet near Paris, where the leaders of France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States met at the invitation of the French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing. The talks were prompted by economic troubles, including the oil crisis that followed 1973 and the end of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. Canada joined in 1976, making the group the G7. Russia was admitted in 1997, which turned it into the G8, but its membership was suspended in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea. The G7 is an informal forum with no permanent secretariat, and the European Union also takes part in its meetings.

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