Name: Trump uses Russia as a shield, or weapon, in fight with European leaders over future of Group of Seven
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Trump uses Russia as a shield, or weapon, in fight with European leaders over future of Group of Seven

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This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe on-again, off-again saga of this year’s Group of Seven economic meeting has had several plotlines.To review: President Trump first announced he would host it himself at his in Florida. Then, after criticism over his decision to use his private business as the site of a government event, the annual meeting was relocated to the woodsy Camp David retreat in Maryland.The coronavirus pandemic then led to it being rescheduled as a virtual event. But after a few weeks, Trump attempted to reverse that decision in favor of an at the White House in June. When that proposal was met with resistance from other G-7 nations, that the whole thing is on hold until at least September.It wasn’t until that last plot twist that Trump raised what seemed the dormant, and fraught, question of whether Russia should again be included in the clubby annual meetings. The potential invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to join the meeting would insert a poison pill into discussions about holding any meeting at all this year, when the United States is the G-7 host.AdvertisementTrump also proposed expanding the group’s membership to include South Korea, Australia and India, although the most he could do on his own is to invite those nations and Russia to attend this year as his guests.South Korean President Moon Jae-in accepted during a phone call Monday, White House spokesman Judd Deere said.If Trump did get his way and Putin came as his guest this fall, Trump could also be spotlighting his relationship with Russia just weeks before the 2020 election. Trump denies he received any help from Russia in the 2016 election, although U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that was one goal of Russian election interference. Those agencies have also warned Russia is likely to try again this year.Trump and Putin spoke by phone on Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said. The conversation took place at Trump’s request and included a discussion about the G-7 meeting, the .AdvertisementRussia was expelled in 2014 from what was then known as the Group of Eight over its invasion of Ukraine, a redrawing of Europe’s borders by force that the other members, all industrial democracies, said was disqualifying.Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan have not changed that view, despite Trump's argument that it’s time to move on. Britain and Canada have spoken out against the idea of readmitting Russia in the days since Trump’s surprise announcement Saturday night that the meeting was off, for now.Trump had pushed the Russia issue hardest in 2018 when it was part of a bitter confrontation between Trump and other leaders in Canada that ended in Trump pulling his name from the joint statement of goals and accomplishments traditionally issued at the close of such summits. At last year’s summit in France, the other leaders didn’t even try to issue such a statement for fear Trump would wreck it.AdvertisementTrump has criticized the G-7 as out of touch and restrictive, a relic of a different world order in which rich nations made the rules. He has mused instead about a G-10 or other numbers.“I don’t feel that as a G-7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world,” Trump said Saturday, speaking to reporters as he returned to Washington from Florida, where he had watched the successful SpaceX launch. “It’s a very outdated group of countries.”Economists and foreign policy experts don’t necessarily disagree, but they point out that the body promotes unified economic policies and provides a forum to air disputes among the countries that still control much of the world’s wealth and entrepreneurial capital. They also note that the Group of 20 was created precisely to provide the expanded playing field Trump says is needed, and that all the add-on nations he listed are already G-20 members.Advertisement“There is no indication that Trump is seeking to strengthen the G-7, which he has long disparaged,” said Amanda Sloat, a Europe expert at the Brookings Institution. She noted that French President Emmanuel Macron had to prod Trump to hold a virtual meeting among leaders in March to coordinate early responses to the pandemic, even though the United States is this year’s host.“Trump has repeatedly sought to invite Russia back into the fold, which the other members have consistently opposed,” Sloat said.There had been no public discussion of Russia rejoining as a member this year until after German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoiled Trump’s hopes for a set-piece in Washington this month.Her refusal allowed other leaders who were on the fence about attending to quickly unify behind that the idea that it couldn’t be held in person now, and for all to breathe a certain sigh of relief.AdvertisementTrump had wanted the White House session as a symbol of economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, although the global health crisis has barely abated. His suggestion for a White House session in late June came before the new crisis of violent protests taking place nightly outside the executive mansion.“So it looks like G-7 may be on because we’ve done well,” Trump said at the White House on May 21, referring to the U.S. coronavirus response. “We’re ahead of schedule in terms of our country, and some of the other countries are doing very well. It looks like G-7 will be on. A full G-7.”The United States has since crossed the grim threshold of 100,000 dead from the virus, far outpacing the other G-7 members. To attend an in-person meeting, some of the leaders would have buck their own guidance on travel and meetings in close quarters, while opening themselves to criticism that they were being used as props in the Trump Show.Advertisement“Merkel’s decision not to come to the U.S. for a G-7 summit gives cover to the reluctant ones,” like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said Jeff Rathke, president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University.Rathke noted that Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had embraced the idea of an in-person meeting, at least to some degree, and that all other the economic group’s members are invested in preserving the G-7’s traditional structure amid global turbulence. Abe had accepted Trump’s invitation for June, which would probably have required him to self-quarantine upon return to Japan.“That is why Trump’s move to include Russia along with other countries appears to be falling flat,” Rathke said. “Trump seems to see an expanded meeting with Russia, South Korea, Australia and India as an anti-China summit. The Europeans have their concerns with Beijing’s behavior but are not interested in being drafted into an explicitly anti-China grouping.”AdvertisementThroughout, Trump has seemed more focused on where the event would be held and who would attend it than on what it might actually set out to do, said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.“There is no sense of the substance. I don’t think the other leaders know what this discussion would be about,” Conley said.“Is it a pandemic conversation? An anti-China conversation?” as the addition of Russia and the three Asian neighbors Trump listed might suggest, Conley asked. “We still don’t know, and it makes it very difficult for the leaders to understand and decide whether they will participate.”CommentsGift ArticleTOP STORIESThe BriefingDon’t miss reporting and analysis from the Hill and the White House.Try a different topic or to save your preferences

This article was published more than&nbsp;2 years agoCommentGift ShareThe on-again, off-again saga of this year’s Group of Seven economic meeting has had several plotlines.To review: President Trump first announced he would host it himself at his in Florida. Then, after criticism over his decision to use his private business as the site of a government event, the annual meeting was relocated to the woodsy Camp David retreat in Maryland.The coronavirus pandemic then led to it being rescheduled as a virtual event. But after a few weeks, Trump attempted to reverse that decision in favor of an...

Trump uses Russia as a shield, or weapon, in fight with European leaders over future of Group of Seven

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