MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is not in talks with Washington about its potential role at an expanded Group of Seven summit later this year, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Saturday, insisting that China should also be included in the event.
FILE PHOTO: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov arrives for a meeting with United States Special Envoy Marshall Billingslea in Vienna, Austria on June 22, 2020. REUTERS / Leonhard Foeger
His comments to the TASS news agency countered those of John Sullivan, the US ambassador to Russia, who told RBC TV on Friday that Washington was “committed to the Russian Foreign Ministry and to the other G7 governments on whether there is an appropriate role for Russia in the G7. ”
United States President Donald Trump has raised the possibility of Russia returning to the group, which includes the world’s most advanced economies, after he was expelled following his annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Trump said last month that it was “common sense” to invite President Vladimir Putin to join the group.
Russia had been part of the group, then known as the G8, since 1997.
However, other G7 countries, including Canada and France, have opposed Russia’s return.
Ryabkov said China’s absence from an expanded G7 summit would make it impossible to discuss international issues.
“The idea of this extended G7 call is wrong because it is unclear how the authors of this initiative plan to address the Chinese factor,” he said.
“Without China it is simply impossible to discuss any problem in the modern world.”
Trump in May announced that he was postponing a G7 summit until September or later and would expand the guest list to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.
Australia has accepted the United States’ invitation to participate.
Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber’s Report; Edited by Clelia Oziel
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