BRUSSELS, June 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The EU’s chief diplomat warned President Donald Trump he did not have the power to change the format
of G7 summit, after the US leader said he wanted to invite several other
countries, including Russia.
Russia was expelled from the club of the world’s leading industrial nations
in 2014 after annexing Crimea from Ukraine, but Trump says the current
membership is outdated.
Leaders from the Group of Seven — the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — had been scheduled to meet by videoconference this month but Trump said on Saturday that he plans to hold an in-person summit later, possibly in September.
Calling the current lineup of countries “very outdated” the US leader also
said he planned to invite other countries, including Russia, to join the
meeting.
But EU foreign affairs high representative Josep Borrell said that Russia
had not changed course since 2014 and should not be re-admitted.
“The prerogative of the G7 chair, in this case the United States, is to
issue guest invitations — guest invitations reflect the host’s priorities,”
Borrell said.
“But changing membership, changing the format on a permanent basis, is not a prerogative of the G7 chair.”
Later the Indian government said that Trump had invited Prime Minister
Narendra Modi to attend the G7 summit.
Trump and Modi spoke by phone on Tuesday and the US president “conveyed his desire to expand the ambit of the grouping beyond the existing membership, to include other important countries including India,” the Delhi government said in a statement.
Modi commended Trump “for his creative and far-sighted approach,
acknowledging the fact that such an expanded forum would be in keeping with the emerging realities of the post-COVID world,” the statement added.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the idea of inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing his “continued disrespect and flaunting of international rules and norms”. — NNN-AGENCIES
