US President Donald Trump has postponed the G7 summit that was to be held in June until September, and said he plans to expand the list of invitees to include Australia, Russia, South Korea and India.
It was not stated as to whether the inclusion of countries meant a permanent addition into the G7.
The insistence of Russia’s inclusion has raised many eyebrows.
Russia was expelled from what was then the G8 in 2014 when Barack Obama, was U.S. President, after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Russia still holds the territory, and various G7 governments have rebuffed previous calls from Trump to readmit Moscow.
This decision has been met with mixed reviews, with Canada holding up red flags, while France has supported the initiative. This announcement comes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has claimed 1,03,000 lives in the US.
The G7 group comprises of the United States, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Canada, and the European Union.