The Group of Seven (G7) is an alliance of economically developed countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States, France and Japan. Later Russia joined and formed the Group of Eight (G8). In 2014, after the Ukraine crisis and the subsequent crisis in the relationship between the United States and Europe and Russia, the then-U.S. President Obama discussed with leaders of other countries and decided to expel Russia from the G8 and return to the G7 model.
But every year the West will discuss whether to re-absorb Russia and restore the G8 model. Trump proposed to invite Russia to participate in the G7 meeting last year and this year, and even absorb Russia and restore the Group of Eight. But G7 members ultimately failed to reach an agreement on this. In August of this year, US President Trump stated that he plans to hold the G7 summit after the end of the presidential election in November and must invite Russian President Putin to participate. However, a resolution recently passed by the US Congress further stifled the possibility of the G7 re-absorbing Russia and prevented Putin from participating in the G7 summit.
TASS reported on November 19 that the US House of Representatives passed a bill on the 18th to prevent Russia from participating in the G7 meeting, prevent the resumption of the G8 model with Russian participation, and prohibit the G7 from re-absorbing Russia. The bill includes prohibiting Washington authorities from using federal funds to support or help Russia to participate in the G7 meeting and restore the G8 model.
According to the bill, only the U.S. Secretary of State and the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (if necessary) can assure members of Congress that Russia has ceased any interference in the elections of the U.S. or other G7 countries, NATO, and EU countries, and fully fulfills the requirements. The obligation under the Skok Agreement is to stop the "occupation of Crimea, ... South Ossetia and Abkhazia" and to withdraw troops and weapons from the banks of the Transnistria. According to the bill, when Russia meets these conditions in the West, this measure that prohibits the G7 from absorbing Russia can cease to operate.
However, the G7 Group has been discussing whether Russia should return, but it has not asked whether Russia is still willing to return. Russian Presidential Press Secretary Peskov stated in July this year that Russia prefers the G20 and does not seek to join the G7. The G7 can discuss global economic issues, but may not be able to claim to be a global leader. Peskov said that the 2014 G8 summit should be held in Sochi, Russia, but Western countries refused to participate. Since then, President Putin has never proposed to allow Russia to participate in the G7 again. Z2z
Russia’s Vice President of the Security Council Medvedev even stated in July this year that the world has changed a lot. Compared with the G20, the value of the G7 is very doubtful, and there is no need to restore the “outdated platform” of the G8. When talking about Russia’s return to the Group of Seven (G7), Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabukov also said that Moscow’s willingness to return has disappeared and Russia now has other development priorities, such as the G20.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov made it clear last year that Russia did not ask anyone to start discussions on the restoration of the G8 framework. Lavrov said: "We did not ask anyone (to raise this issue). As I have said, this is what we learned from the public statements of some Western countries. On this issue, we have not contacted anyone, nor Will not do this.” Lavrov emphasized that for Russia, the G20 is more important than the G8 framework.
Moscow has stated on many occasions that Russia does not exclude contact with G7, and Russia has maintained good contacts with some G7 members, but Russia has no intention of returning to an “outdated platform”. Moscow expresses its annoyance that the West uses this for hype every year. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zakharova once expressed the hope that the West will not always show off the topic of whether G7 will re-absorb Russia.
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