Trump delays G7 meeting after Merkel spurns invite
President wants Russia at rescheduled session
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he’ll postpone until September the annual Group of Seven meeting of world leaders, which he had wanted to hold in-person by the end of June at the White House as the administration tries to project a return to normalcy amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel had declined Trump’s invitation to come to Washington for the meeting, citing concerns about the pandemic. Trump informed reporters of his decision to delay the gathering until the fall aboard Air Force One as he returned from Cape Canaveral, Fla., where he had viewed the successful SpaceX shuttle launch.
Trump also said he 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 It’s a very outdated group of countries,” Trump said Saturday.
Russia had been invited to attend the sessions for several years until 2014, when Moscow was disinvited over its invasion of Crimea. Trump has repeatedly said he wanted to include Russia again, which Merkel and others vigorously opposed.
Since the other six members of the G7 are opposed to Russia’s rejoining, it isn’t clear whether they would attend a meeting where Trump forced the issue.
Russia, South Korea, Australia
and India are already part of the Group of 20, which was conceived as a larger and more inclusive gathering than the G7, with its clubby reputation.
Trump spoke with another G7 leader, Emmanuel Macron of France, on Saturday, and the two presidents “discussed progress on convening the G7,” according to a statement from the White House.
Macron’s office later put out a statement saying that it is important for all G7 leaders to attend the meeting, while raising the possibility he might not go if Merkel is not there.
“For a face-to-face G7, everyone must be present,” the statement read, adding that “the presence of the chancellor and the unity of Europeans is important.”
The Trump administration had announced in March that the annual gathering of large industrial economies would take place virtually, but switched it back to an in-person meeting earlier this month.