The Quint is an informal decision-making group consisting of the United States and the Big Four of Western Europe (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom). [1] [2] All the countries forming it are allies and members of NATO, the OECD and the G7/G20. [3] [4] [5] [6]
The United States, France and the United Kingdom are "nuclear-weapon states", while Germany and Italy are part of the nuclear weapons sharing program.
The idea of a trilateral axis on foreign policy issues was proposed by French President Charles de Gaulle to his British and American counterparts (see Fouchet Plan). However, that plan was never implemented. Meetings with that goal took place around 1980 between the foreign ministers of these three countries and West Germany, although they were largely symbolic and led to no real decision. [7] The Quint in its current form seems to have begun as the Contact Group excluding Russia. Nowadays, Quint leaders discuss all major international topics participating in video conferences or meeting one another in various forums such as NATO, the OSCE, the G20 [8] and the UN. The Quint meets also at ministerial and experts' level. [9] [10] [11] Quint countries along with Russia and China participate together in global discussions as in the Syrian case, they have joint statements and meetings as in the case of Lebanon. [12] [13] [14]
The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is organized around shared values of pluralism, liberal democracy, and representative government. G7 members are the major IMF advanced economies.
A sherpa is the personal representative of a head of state or head of government who prepares an international summit, such as the annual G7 and G20 summits. Between the G7 summits there are multiple sherpa conferences where possible agreements are laid out. This reduces the amount of time and resources required at the negotiations of the heads of state at the final summit. The name sherpa—without further context—refers to sherpas for the G7 summit, but the designation can be extended to different regular conferences where the participation of the head of state is required. The sherpa is generally quite influential, although they do not have the authority to make a final decision about any given agreement.
The Group of Eight + Five (G8+5) was an international group that consisted of the leaders of the heads of government from the G8 nations, plus the heads of government of the five leading emerging economies. In March 2014, Russia was cast out of the Group of 8 due to its involvement in the 2014 Crimea crisis in Ukraine, so the G8+5 in its original form is unlikely to reconvene with Russia present.
The 37th G8 summit was held on 26–27 May 2011 in Deauville, France.
Matteo Renzi is an Italian politician who served as prime minister of Italy from 2014 to 2016. He has been a senator for Florence since 2018. Renzi has served as the leader of Italia Viva (IV) since 2019, having been the secretary of the Democratic Party (PD) from 2013 to 2018, with a brief interruption in 2017.
The 2014 G20 Brisbane summit was the ninth meeting of the G20 heads of government/heads of state. It was held in Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland, Australia, on 15–16 November 2014. The hosting venue was the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre at South Brisbane. The event was the largest ever peacetime police operation in Australia.
The 2015 G20 Antalya summit was the tenth annual meeting of the G20 heads of government/heads of state. It was held in Belek, Antalya Province, Turkey on 15–16 November 2015. The venue for the Leaders Summit was Regnum Carya Hotel Convention Centre at the Regnum Carya Golf & Resort Spa.
The 2013 G20 Saint Petersburg summit was the eighth meeting of the G20 heads of government/heads of state. The hosting venue was the Constantine Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on 5–6 September 2013.
The 40th G7 summit was held 4–5 June, 2014 in Brussels, Belgium. It was originally scheduled to be held as the “40th G8 summit” and be hosted by Russia in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. However, the other seven countries decided on 24 March that the summit would be instead held without Russia in Brussels.
The 41st G7 summit was held in Schloss Elmau, Krün, Bavaria, Germany on 7–8 June 2015. In March 2014 the remaining members of the G8 declared that a meaningful discussion was currently not possible with Russia, and since then meetings have continued under the G7 name.
The Big Four, also known as G4, refers to France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. France and the United Kingdom are official nuclear-weapon states and are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power of veto, which enables any one of them to prevent the adoption of any "substantive" draft Council resolution, regardless of its level of international support. The United Kingdom is the only country of the Big Four which is not a member state of the European Union, having ended its membership in 2020, pursuant to a referendum held in 2016. France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom are considered major European economic powers and they are the Western European countries individually represented as full members of the G7 and the G20. They have been referred to as the "Big Four of Europe" since the interwar period.
The 2014 Wales Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the NATO countries, held in Newport, Wales on 4 and 5 September 2014. Such summits are sporadically held and allow leaders and officials from NATO Allies to discuss current issues of mutual concern and to plan strategic activities. The 2014 summit has been described by US Navy Admiral James G. Stavridis as the most important since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit was the eleventh meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20). It was held on 4–5 September 2016 in the city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang. It was the first ever G20 summit to be hosted in China and the second in an Asian country after 2010 G20 Seoul summit was hosted in South Korea.
The 42nd G7 summit was held on 26–27 May 2016 at the Shima Kanko Hotel in Kashiko Island, Shima, Mie Prefecture, Japan. In March 2014, the G7 declared that a meaningful discussion was currently not possible with Russia in the context of the G8. Since then, meetings have continued within the G7 process.
The 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit was the thirteenth meeting of Group of Twenty (G20), which was held on 30 November and 1 December 2018 in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It was the first G20 summit to be hosted in South America.
The 43rd G7 summit was held on 26–27 May 2017 in Taormina (ME), Sicily, Italy. In March 2014, the G7 declared that a meaningful discussion was currently not possible with Russia in the context of the G8. Since then, meetings have continued within the G7 process.
The 2017 G20 Hamburg summit was the twelfth meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20), which was held on 7–8 July 2017, at Hamburg Messe, in the city of Hamburg, Germany.
The 45th G7 summit was held on 24–26 August 2019, in Biarritz, France. In March 2014, the G7 declared that a meaningful discussion was currently not possible with Russia in the context of the G8. Since then, meetings have continued within the G7 process. However, according to a senior Trump administration official, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron had agreed that Russia should be invited to the next G7 Summit to be held in 2020.
The 2021 G20 Rome summit was the sixteenth meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20), which was held in Rome, the capital city of Italy, on 30–31 October 2021.
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