United States President Donald Trump on Saturday announced the postponement of the Group of Seven summit and said that he wanted to hold it in June, reported AFP. Trump said he will expand the list of countries invited to attend the meeting to include India, Australia, Russia and South Korea.
“I don’t feel that as a G7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during his return to Washington from Cape Canaveral in Florida. He added that the G7 in its current format was a “very outdated group of countries”.
The G7 is comprised of the US, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Japan, as well as the European Union.
The president added that he would like to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India to join the summit, which could happen in September either before or after the United Nations General Assembly. Trump said he had “roughly” broached the topic with leaders of the four countries. However, it is not clear whether Trump’s desire to invite the additional countries this year was an effort to permanently expand the G7.
White House spokesperson Alyssa Farah said Trump wanted to bring the other countries to talk about the future of China at the summit, CNN reported. Trump has repeatedly attacked Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which began in China’s Wuhan city.
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