Global economy, ISIS, climate change top G-7 agendas

 Climate change, including role of India and China, global economy and counter-terrorism tactics will be some of the key topics that will dominate the upcoming G-7 summit in Germany, senior US officials said.

The G-7 is a grouping of top seven industrialised countries of the world -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US.

Russia which was added into the group in 1998 was suspended last year after Moscow annexed Crimea.

The June 7-8 Summit of G-7 leaders in Bavaria would be held without Russia.
US President Barack Obama would be leading the American delegation to the Summit wherein according to his close aides he would press for more sanctions on Russia for its alleged interference in Ukraine.

"We will affirm the importance of maintaining sanctions on Russia to incentivize full implementation of the Minsk agreement, and also to serve as a deterrent against further Russian aggression," said Ben Rhodes, the Deputy National Security Advisor.

"It's very important coming out of these G-7 meetings that the world is seen as speaking with one voice in support of those important consequences that have been imposed on Russia, and to demonstrate that Russia will continue to face those sanctions until a diplomatic solution is fully implemented," he said.

Leaders of G-7 countries would also be discussing the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran and the progress in the anti-ISIS coalition in Syria and Iraq, he said.

Meeting ahead of the Paris Summit later this year, the leaders of the top industrialised countries would also devote quite amount of time of their discussion on climate change, he said.

"We have been working -- obviously the President's climate agenda was released; the Climate Action Plan was released two years ago. We continue to work domestically," said Caroline Atkinson, deputy national security advisor on international economics.

"We also have been engaged very closely with major emerging economies -- notably China, also India -- to make sure that they are going to work with us for a successful Paris agreement," she said.

"We see the G-7 as an important milestone on this issue, and one where we will be able to speak both with other G-7 countries about ways that we can move both with announcing our own targets and taking steps to support other countries and to protect the environment," she said.

On the second day of the Summit, G-7 leaders would hold meeting with African leaders including the head of the African Union.

Here the G-7 leaders would speak with them about how the G7 and Africa can work together to support both a successful climate agreement.