G7 an ‘outdated group’
US President Donald Trump has said he will delay the G7 summit scheduled to take place in June and invite other countries -- including Russia -- to join the meeting.
"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 It's a very outdated group of countries," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday.
He said he would like to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India to join an expanded summit in the fall.
It could happen in September, either before or after the UN General Assembly, Trump said, adding that "maybe I'll do it after the election."
Describing the event as a "G-10 or G-11," Trump said he had "roughly" broached the topic with leaders of the four other countries.
Leaders from the Group of Seven, which the United States heads this year, had been scheduled to meet by videoconference in late June after COVID-19 scuttled plans to gather in-person at Camp David, the US presidential retreat outside Washington.
Trump created suspense just over a week ago, however, when he announced that he might hold the huge gathering in-person after all, "primarily at the White House" but also potentially parts of it at Camp David.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel became the first leader to decline the in-person invitation outright. Her response followed ambivalent to vaguely positive reactions to the invitation from Britain, Canada and France.
The G7 major advanced countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- hold annual meetings to discuss international economic coordination. Russia was thrown out of what was the G8 in 2014 after it seized Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.
The work of the G7 is now more important than ever as countries struggle to repair coronavirus-inflicted damage.
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