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This is a list of the heads of state and heads of government of the Group of Seven nations at each G6, G7, or G8 summit since the organisation's inception in 1975. The Group currently consists of the seven largest industrialized democracies,[ citation needed ] Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and also formerly Russia. The European Union is also a member since 1977, represented by the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, who before 2009 was the leader of the state holding the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, also sometimes coinciding with a G7/8 nation, and is since 2009 a permanent position. The G7 holds an annual summit, which each nation's head of government attends. Each year the heads of government take turns assuming the presidency, whose job it is to set the agenda for and host the annual summit.
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While the current G7 consists of seven nations, it has not always done so. The group was formed as the Group of Six, G6, including all of today's members except Canada. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Canada joined in the second year of the group's existence, 1976, forming the Group of Seven, G7. Russia joined the Group of Eight, G8, in 1997, under the leadership of President Boris Yeltsin. Russia was suspended in March 2014 after the Russian annexation of Crimea, the group being thereafter again referred to as the Group of Seven. [1]
