Russia must rejoin G7: Trump
THAW IN RELATIONS? US president pitches for Moscow’s return to the big club from which it was expelled in 2014
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said that he would like Russia to rejoin G7, ahead of a summit of the global group of industrialised nation in France this weekend.
During the previous Obama Administration, Russia was kicked out of the group which was originally G8 countries comprising the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and Russia. European Union also attends its annual leadership summits.
“I think it’s much more appropriate to have Russia in. It should be the G8, because a lot of the things we talk about have to do with Russia,” Trump told reporters in his Oval Office on Tuesday.
“So I could certainly see it being the G8 again. If somebody would make that motion, I would certainly be disposed to think about it very favourably,” he said.
Observing that for most of the time it was the G8 which included Russia, Trump said his predecessor Barack Obama didn’t want Russia in because he got outsmarted by its leader Vladimir Putin. In 2014, Russia was disinvited from gatherings of the former G8 after the country’s annexation of Crimea.
FIVE HELD FOR URGING ATTACKS ON G7 POLICE
BIARRITZ, FRANCE: French authorities arrested five people for encouraging attacks on a hotel slated to accommodate police during this weekend’s G7 summit, sources said on Tuesday, as more than 13,000 members of the security forces prepared to deploy for the event.
The arrests occurred early Monday, just days ahead of the summit chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron who will from Saturday host leaders including Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Britain’s Boris Johnson in the southwestern resort town of Biarritz.
Several of the suspects are young members of radical anticapitalist groups known as “black blocs” which played a major role in the violent street protests that rocked Paris and other French cities over the last months.