14 minutes agoRussia denies US talking to G7 enlargement
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)Russia is not negotiating with the United States about the potential expansion of the G7-strong group of more industrialized countries at the summit, expected to be held later this year, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said today. “
Russia is not negotiating with the United States about the potential expansion of the G7-strong group of more industrialized countries at the summit, expected to be held later this year, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said today.
“We haven't had negotiations of this kind and we won't have”, he told the TASS agency 4 July.
Ryabkov's comments conflict with US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan's comments, which on 3 July declared for RBC TV that Washington “is engaged with the Russian Foreign Ministry and other governments of the G7 countries, over whether it should have a role for Russia in G7”.
US President Donald Trump has raised the idea of Russia's return to the group of most industrialized nations during May, when he announced that the G7 meeting would be postponed to September due to the coronary pandemic. Trump had also declared that he would invite Australia, Russia, South Korea and India to this summit.
Russia, which was part of this group, was expelled from it after illegally annexing the Ukrainian Crimea Peninsula in 2014.
Trump had said it is normal for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be invited to reunite the group, but other G7 states, such as Canada and France, have rejected this idea.
