On Saturday the US President Donald Trump said the G7 group was “very outdated” and the postponed a scheduled summit to September to include India, Russia, South Korea and Australia in the meeting.
Trump said according to the transcript made available by the US embassy in the New Delhi, “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 It’s a very outdated group of countries.”
In White House, Alyssa Farah, director of strategic communications, said, “this is bringing together our traditional allies to talk about how to deal with the future of China”.
Trump said, “We want Australia, we want India, we want South Korea.” “And what do we have? That’s a nice group of countries right there,” Trump quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Trump also said, “described the theoretical gathering as the ‘G10 or G11’ which would mean making those countries members something he cannot do on his own. He said he had had conversations with the leaders of those countries.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly refused to attend the meet given the invitation extended to Russia. This will be the second time in a row that India will be at the so-called “high table” of a group previously seen as representing the world’s most industrialised countries. India was part of the extended G7 meeting held in France last year.
It is unsure how the group will come together on dealing with China given the internal dynamics many of the G7 countries are opposed to Russia rejoining the group. Secondly, Russia is seen as an ally of China and has been critical of the US in recent times.
