President Putin proposed bringing Russia and China into the G7 group
President Putin said the G7 should be expanded to include Russia, India, China and Türkiye to ensure effectiveness.
"If you want to restore the G8 group, do it. I think everyone understands this now" - Russian President Putin said at the 5th Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok city on September 4.
"French President Emmanuel Macron also recently said that Western hegemony is over. I cannot imagine an effective international organization without India and China," he added.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting within the framework of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 4. Photo: Reuters. |
In March 2014, at the urging of former US President Barack Obama, G7 leaders removed Russia from the Group of Eight (G8) after President Putin annexed the Crimean peninsula.
US President Donald Trump also proposed on August 20 to bring Russia back to the G7, saying that Russia is often the topic of discussion when he and the leaders of the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan meet each year. Trump said that Obama wanted to remove Russia from the group because Putin is "smarter than him".
However, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said that if Russia wants to return to the group of developed countries, it must show goodwill by giving up the Crimean peninsula and ending the war in eastern Ukraine.
