ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE—President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would postpone a Group of Seven summit he had hoped to hold next month until September or later and expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida, Trump said the G7, which groups the worlds most advanced economies, was a “very outdated group of countries” in its current format.
“Im postponing it because I dont feel that as a G7 it properly represents whats going on in the world,” Trump said.
Most European countries offered no immediate comment on the proposal, with a spokesman for the German government saying Berlin was “waiting for further information”.
It was unclear whether Trumps desire to invite the additional countries was a bid to permanently expand the G7. On several previous occasions, he suggested Russia be added, given what he called Moscows global strategic importance.
Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, was president, after Moscow annexed the Crimea region from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.
White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the countries to discuss China at the summit.
Trump has criticized Beijing over its handling of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, which began in China, and on Friday he ordered hiRead More From Source
[contf]
[contfnew]
The Epoch Times
[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]
