I’d be glad to host G7, says Putin

QINGDAO, China: Russia did not choose to leave the G7 and would be happy to host its members in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said yesterday when asked about US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Russia should have been at its latest meeting.

Trump said on Friday that Russia should have attended a G7 summit in Canada over the weekend, an idea that even Moscow seemed to reject, saying it was focused on other formats. Russia was pushed out of the then G8 due to its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea four years ago.

“We did not (choose to) leave it; our colleagues refused to come to Russia due to known reasons at some point. Please, we will be glad to see everyone here in Moscow,” Putin said in China’s city of Qingdao.

He, however, added that the combined purchasing power of the Russia and China-led Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, a meeting of which he was attending in China, outstripped the G7.

Putin, who has previously told Europe he had warned them about the trade threat Washington posed to them, also said that if Trump imposed new tariffs on imports of foreign cars it would have serious consequences for the global economy and especially for Europe. – Reuters