EU rejects US invitation to Russia to attend G7 summit
(Baonghean.vn) - The European Union (EU) has just rejected the proposal to expand its membership, including Russia, to attend the Summit of the Group of Seven leading developed industrial nations (G7), and warned the US that it cannot arbitrarily change all the group's rules.
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| In recent years, the G7 Summit has witnessed many heated discussions between the leaders of member countries and President Trump. Pictured is the 2018 G7 Summit. Photo: AFP |
US President Donald Trump has announced the postponement of the G7 Summit until at least September, instead of the planned end of June, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with that announcement, the US leader declared that the G7 "machine" was outdated, and wanted to expand the composition of the countries attending the conference, including Russia, South Korea, Australia and India.
The EU believes that the G7 is an important multilateral organization and cannot be arbitrarily changed by the host country of the summit, namely the US.
"Russia has been excluded from the G8 (Group of Eight leading industrialized countries). A meaningful discussion will only take place if Russia changes its attitude and respects international rules. Therefore, the G7 Summit cannot be in the G8 format," said an EU spokesman.
Russia was expelled from the G8 in 2014, in direct retaliation for its annexation of Crimea. Most G7 members had objected to Trump’s previous phone calls with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, refusing to readmit Moscow.
An EU spokesman admitted that inviting outside countries to attend was the right of the US - the host country, but changing membership status was impossible.
At a regular press conference on June 2, a representative of the French Foreign Ministry expressed the view that Russia's participation in the G7 Summit must have the consensus of all remaining members of the group.
"All decisions regarding Russia were adopted by the G7 in 2014. Likewise, any new decisions must be adopted by mutual agreement of the G7 member states, in the context of the implementation of the Minsk Agreements," the French Foreign Ministry said.
Britain and Canada have also opposed expanding the membership of the G7 Summit to include Russia, and will even use their veto power to prevent Russia from returning to be a member of the group.
The Kremlin previously announced that President Donald Trump had a phone call with President Putin about the idea of holding a G7 summit in September, with invitations to the leaders of Russia, India, Australia and South Korea.
Russia said President Trump's proposal raised many questions, and its diplomats would seek answers from Washington.
