Group of Twenty, often called the G-20, or G20, is an organization of finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 countries, the European Union, and the African Union. The G-20 works to promote global growth and development.
The G-20 is a loosely structured organization that operates mostly without formal guidelines. The organization’s chair rotates annually among members and is selected from a different region of the world each year. The leaders of the G-20 member nations, the European Union, and the African Union come together for annual summit conferences. The nation that holds the G-20 chair hosts and organizes that year’s summit conference.
The G-20 has its roots in earlier economic groups. The leaders of major democratic nations began meeting annually in 1975. The first summit included six countries: France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany. The group became the Group of Seven (G-7, or G7) when Canada joined for the 1976 summit. A representative from the European Community (now the European Union) began attending with the 1977 summit.
Russia began limited participation in the G-7 meetings in the early 1990’s, and the group evolved into the Group of Eight (G-8, or G8). In 1999, the G-20 was formed to give emerging-market nations a greater voice. At a G-20 summit in 2009, the group determined that the G-20 would take the place of the G-8 as the main forum for international economic discussion. The G-8 continued, however, to meet annually. In 2014, Russia was suspended indefinitely from the G-8 for its illegal annexation of Ukraine’s region of Crimea. The Group of Eight became known, once again, as the Group of Seven. The African Union became a permanent member of the G-20 in 2023. 
Some international economic organizations, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the G-20, are commonly associated with the concept of globalization—that is, the trend toward increased business, cultural, and governmental interaction across international borders. Critics of globalization argue that it enables powerful nations to take advantage of weaker ones, gives excessive power to business corporations, and interferes with the governmental processes of individual nations. Antiglobalization activists regularly hold protests at economic summits.
