And with Russia sidelined due to the Ukraine conflict is the club further weakened? All this makes a display of common purpose from the leaders of the most powerful liberal democracies more important than ever.

Topics on the agenda of this year's summit - with the motto "Think Ahead, Act Together” – range from climate protection and global health to traditional economic issues like the controversial free trade agreement TTIP.

Ahead of the summit two former German Chancellors and German business groups caused a stir by criticizing the exclusion of Russian President Vladimir Putin from the get-together.

Have your say: G7 - No Putin, no point? quadriga(at)dw.de

Our guests:

Donata Riedel, economics journalist with Handelsblatt. She says: "Russia always was an outsider in the club of the G7."

Johannes Leithäuser, former London correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and now reports for the FAZ from Berlin. He says: "G20 is more honest than G7."

Alan Posener, German-British journalist, author at the daily newspaper Die Welt. He says: "The G7 was a silly idea, a kind of world economic government, it can't work."