In an interview published on Monday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to reinvite Russia back to the Group of Seven (G7), an international summit of the most advanced economies.
Maas reiterated that Moscow’s exclusion from the group in 2014 was due to its unlawful annexation of Crimea and its military intervention in eastern Ukraine. “As long as we do not have a solution there, I see no chance for this,” said Maas. However, he also urged the Kremlin to make more efforts in overcoming the conflict, recognizing its ability to make a big contribution to talks and reopening doors for negotiation with Kyiv.
Further, while mentioning that the G7 and G20 are the only “two sensibly coordinated formats”, Maas highlighted that Moscow remains an important part of the G20 and that its actions are crucial to the G7 due to its involvements in the Ukrainian, Libyan, and Syrian conflicts. At the same time, he criticized Russia for its prevention of humanitarian aid to Syria.
G7 members include Canada, Germany, Italy, France, the UK, the US, and Japan. The European Union (EU) is also a member, but cannot host or chair the talks. The US was scheduled to host the summit this year in June, but the Trump administration postponed the talks to September.
In June, the United Kingdom, Canada and European Union vetoed Trump’s invitation to Russia for the upcoming G7 Summit after the US President had declared his wish to invite Vladimir Putin to the talks in the fall. At the time, Trump said that he did not agree with the current composition of the group as it was “very outdated” and that he hoped to expand the group and invite Russia, India, South Korea and Australia to the next meet. At the time, the White House said that China would be the focus of the next summit, in line with the current administration’s penchant for blaming the country for the spread of the coronavirus. Beijing had reacted strongly to the move, warning that attempts to create a “small circle” against the Asian power will be “doomed to fail”.
Earlier this month, German ministers declined Trump’s invite to the summit; on the other hand, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed that he would be travelling to Washington for the meeting. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also extended an invite to New Delhi to attend the meet, stressing on India’s importance as a strategic partner to the US.
See also: Trump Postpones “Outdated” G7 Summit, Wants India and Others to Join
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called a resolution of US Democratic senators, which was against Moscow’s participation in the G7, as a bid to win support on the basis of Russophobia. “I think, they simply take advantage of the US electorate’s naivete in international agenda and come up with whatever they want, and do not even bother to justify the disproportion of such steps and basically their absurdity,” she said. She also noted that a domestic legislation on Russia’s role in the G7 has no effect on the Kremlin’s stance or resolve.
Also read: Is the G7 Falling Apart?