The G7 meeting in Canada is likely to put the internal cohesion of the group, which includes the leading Western economies plus Japan, to a severe test. Trump’s America rarely sees eye to eye with the six other countries regarding most issues on the agenda.

As it stands, the relevant weight of this group in providing stability to the global financial system was affected by the 2008 financial crisis, which led to the creation of the G20.

This group of Western powers (with Japan co-opted) that had traditionally dominated the global economic and financial system realised that they could no longer do so on their own, as other economies had emerged whose cooperation to maintain the existing system had become necessary. The goal still was to maintain the global pre-eminence of the G7 by incorporating the emerging economies into the existing globalised system fostered by them.

However, with the geopolitical rivalry with Russia (expelled in 2014 from what had become the G8) becoming intense after its military operation in Ukraine, and China declared as the principal long-term adversary of the US, this goal of preserving the hegemony of the West as much as possible by broadening the base of cooperation through the co-option of select non-Western countries is no longer realistic.

Russia and China have become close strategic partners, their bilateral trade has expanded, and they are trading in their own currencies. The BRICS group has expanded, with members wanting to gain more economic and financial autonomy through development banks, trading more in their own currencies where possible, pressing for reforms of international political and financial institutions, and backing multipolarity in order to have a greater say in global governance.

With his transactional approach towards friends and partners and giving primacy to trade over geopolitics, Trump has delivered a strong blow to internal unity within the G7. He is using trade as a weapon against all countries, including America’s G7 partners, on whom he has imposed tariffs. He has upended the global trade order........

© RT.com