AIR FORCE ONE – President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would postpone until the end of the Group of 7 meeting he planned to hold next month at the White House despite an ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And he said he planned to invite Russia, Australia, South Korea and India when he advocated for group expansion.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One when he returned to Washington from Florida that he felt the current group structure was “very outdated” and did not properly represent “what is happening in the world.”
He said he had not set a new date for the meeting, but thought the meeting could take place in September, around the time of the annual United Nations meeting in New York, or maybe after the US election in November.
Alyssa Farah, director of strategic communications for the White House, said that Trump wanted to bring in some of the country’s traditional allies and those affected by the coronavirus to discuss the future of China.
The surprise announcement came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office said on Saturday that she would not do it attend a meeting except the course of the spread of the corona virus has changed by then.
The world’s major economic leaders are scheduled to meet in June in the U.S. at Camp David, the president’s retreat in Maryland, but the corona virus outbreak hampers the plan. Trump announced in March that he was canceling the summit due to a pandemic and that leaders would negotiate via video conference. But Trump then switched directions, saying a week ago that he planned to host a direct meeting.
“Now that our country is ‘Transitioning back to Greatness’, I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David,” Trump tweeted. “Other members also started their COMEBACK. That would be a good sign for all – normalization!
G7 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The group presidency rotates annually among member states.
Trump has repeatedly advocated expanding the group to include Russia, encouraging opposition from several members, including Justin Trudeau from Canada, who told reporters that he personally voiced his objections to Russia’s re-acceptance.
“Russia has not changed the behavior that led to his expulsion in 2014, and therefore should not be allowed to return to the G7,” he told a news conference.
The Council also issued a bipartisan resolution in December 2019 in support of Russia’s previous expulsion from the annual meeting.
Russia has been invited to attend the most advanced economic meeting in the world since 1997 but was stopped in 2014 after the invasion of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.
