WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump said that he wanted Russia to rejoin what used to be the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, calling the US-led decision to expel Russia from the group a decade ago a “mistake.”
“I’d love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out,” Trump said in remarks to reporters inside the Oval Office of the White House.
G8, which comprised the Group of Seven (G7) plus Russia, ceased to exist in March 2014 after the US-led effort under then-President Barack Obama to kick Russia out, for the proclaimed reason of Russian annexation of Crimea that year. The mechanism of G7, which is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, continued to operate.
“I think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would love to be back,” Trump said. “Obama and a couple of other people made a mistake, and they got Russia out. It’s very possible that if that was the G8, you wouldn’t have had the problem with Ukraine.”
In response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, G7 countries have levied unprecedented sanctions on Moscow, including the phasing out of imports of Russian oil and gas, and barring Russian banks from dealing in dollars and euros.
G7 members have also provided weapons to Ukraine, collectively pledged more than $100 billion in financial and military aid, and agreed to loan the country an additional $50 billion using windfall profits from frozen Russian assets as collateral.
Any change to the G7’s membership would require consensus by the group’s leaders, making a change in the makeup, including by readmitting Russia, unlikely in the near term. — NNN-AGENCIES
