EXPAND OUTDATED G7 BLOC TO INCLUDE INDIA: TRUMP

Postpones G7 meet till September

The US President Donald Trump has postponed the G7 Summit till September, and expressed his desire to expand the ‘outdated’ bloc to G10 or G11, including India and three other nations to the grouping of the world’s top economies.

Trump has been over the weeks suggesting that there is “no greater example” of reopening amid the Covid-19 pandemic than holding an inperson G7 summit by the end of June. The president on Saturday said he is “postponing it (the summit) until September” and plans to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India.

“I don’t feel that as a G7, it properly represents what’s going on in the world. It’s a very outdated group of countries,” he said. “So it might be a G10, G11, and it could be after the election (in the US) is over...,” Trump said. He said the G7 Summit could happen before the UN General Assembly session in September.

Trump said the summit could take place the weekend before or after the UN General Assembly, which is currently scheduled to begin on September 15. Trump has already “roughly” broached the idea with the leaders of the four countries he’d like to add.

“We want Australia, we want India, we want South Korea. And what do we have? That’s a nice group of countries right there,” he said, not mentioning Russia. Trump has already talked about re-inviting Russia back to the group, which was kicked out of the bloc which was originally G8 countries. In 2014, Russia was disinvited from gatherings of the former G8 after the country’s annexation of Crimea.

G7 is the group of top seven developed economies. These include the US, United Kingdom, France, G ermany, Italy, Japan and Canada. The US currently holds the annual presidency of G7 countries.