Global Economics Monthly: G7 Leaders Need To Talk

May 16, 2016

President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima at the end of this month will be a powerful reminder of how far U.S.-Japan relations have come over the past 70 years. It will likely overshadow the original, more prosaic purpose of the president’s trip: to meet his counterparts from Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Canada for the annual G7 summit. But at a turbulent time, there is real value in leaders of the world’s largest advanced democracies getting together to discuss shared concerns. The Japanese hosts should allow plenty of time for leaders to talk about the two core themes that brought the group together four decades ago: a troubled global economy, and challenges to a global order of which these seven countries have long been the principal champions.