G8

Group of Eight
Canada  France  Germany  Italy  Japan  Russia (suspended)[1]  United Kingdom  United States  European Union

The Group of Eight (G8) was a group made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia (suspended), the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission is also represented in the committee. The group has conferences or meetings throughout the year, it researches policies, and has a summit meeting once a year. The heads of government of each G8 country attend the summit meeting.

Each year a different country takes over the presidency of the group for the duration of the year. The country that holds the presidency sets the agenda for the year and hosts the summit for that year. The first G6 meeting was in 1975. Canada joined in 1976, making G7. Russia made it G8 in 1997.

The organization's official 2014 summit was not held in Moscow as previously planned, due to the invasion and takeover of Crimea.^[2] On March 24, 2014, all seven member nations voted to suspend Russia from the G-8.^[3][4] The meeting was held in Brussels instead, and the G8 will be called G7 since there are now seven leaders.

1. ↑ "Russia just quit the G8 for good". Independent.co.uk. 13 January 2017.
2. ↑ "G8 summit 'won't be held in Russia'". BBC News. 24 March 2014.
3. ↑ Correspondent, By Jim Acosta, CNN Senior White House (24 March 2014). "U.S., other powers kick Russia out of G8 - CNNPolitics". CNN. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. ↑ Smale, Alison; Shear, Michael D. (24 March 2014). "Russia Is Ousted From Group of 8 by U.S. and Allies". The New York Times.