South Korea not invited to G7 summit in Italy; US think tank urges expansion

South Korea was not invited to the G7 summit held in Italy. South Korea, which is not a G7 member, will attend the summit in Hiroshima in 2021 and last year at the invitation of the chair country.
President Yoon Seok-yeol is attending the summit. The South Korean government is aiming to join the G7 as an official member. Meanwhile, the Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported on the 14th that the U.S.
On the 12th, it was reported that the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) had recommended that the G7 should be expanded to a G9 that would include South Korea and Australia.
The G7 summit, which began on the 13th in Puglia, southern Italy, and continued until the 15th, included the following G7 members:
In addition to the regular members, 11 other countries, including India, Kenya, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), attended as invited guests. The summit focused on Russia's response to the invasion of Ukraine and China's
They discussed the issue of overproduction of electric vehicles (EVs), regulations on artificial intelligence (AI), etc. A leaders' declaration was adopted on the 14th.
South Korea is not a G7 member, but it will hold the presidency in 2021 when the UK chairs the summit and in 2022 when Japan chairs the summit.
Last year, when South Korea was the chair country, it was invited to attend the G7 Summit. Then-President Moon Jae-in will attend the 2021 summit.
The core of the administration rejoiced, and a senior official from the presidential office remarked, "Korea is being internationally recognized as a de facto G8 nation."
President Yoon Seok-yeol attended the expanded G7 summit and discussed international cooperation in areas such as foreign policy, security, the economy, aid for developing countries, and environmental issues.
During his stay, he also visited the Memorial for Korean Atomic Bomb Victims in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park together with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, becoming the first South Korean president to do so. He also attended the Japan-South Korea Summit and the Japan-US-South Korea Summit.
However, South Korea was not invited to this summit in Italy. When it became clear in April that South Korea would not be invited, the South Korean presidential office said, "Italy is
"I understand that the government chose the target countries mainly based on the issues in Africa and the Mediterranean, and I respect that," he said. However, the opposition party said at the time, "The Yoon administration is not concerned about the Ukraine war, the situation in the Middle East, the Korean War,
"The summit has effectively been excluded from important forums for discussing the rapidly changing international situation, including the new Cold War on the island," criticized the move.
According to the JoongAng Ilbo, the US Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
On the 12th (local time), the CSIS proposed in a report that South Korea and Australia should be added to the G7 to form the G9. The article said, "The reason (CSIS) proposed expanding the system to the G9 is because of the influence of the G7.
"The G7 only has one country (Japan) representing Asia, and the voices of developing countries are also excluded," CSIS said in the report.
He also expressed concern that "such a structure will not be able to lead global governance." In 2020, then-President Donald Trump of the United States announced that the G7 framework would be
He has criticized the current G7 as "outdated" and expressed a desire to expand it to the G10 or G11. Now, once again, the US (CSIS is a leading US think tank) has voiced its opinion that the G7 should be expanded.
However, since the Biden administration took office, the discussion has not been lively. The JoongAng Ilbo article also said, "Currently, the camp opposed to South Korea's entry into the G7 has lost its voice due to the increase in the number of member countries.
"The two European countries that will hold the presidency in 2022, Germany, and the current presidency, Italy, have both excluded South Korea from their invitation list," he said.
It is clear that the G7 framework is reaching its limits in addressing global issues. At this summit, the focus was on AI (artificial intelligence), with its utilization and regulation being the focus of attention.
The discussion also took place in the G7, during which Prime Minister Kishida suggested that it was important to go beyond the G7 framework and move forward with creating common rules.
If South Korea had been invited to this summit, it could have made meaningful contributions to the discussion on AI as an "IT-advanced country."
It might have been possible.