President Trump said Thursday he wants Russia to be readmitted to the Group of Seven (G7) economic and political forum, more than a decade after Moscow was kicked out following the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“I’d love to have them back,” Trump, 78, told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think it was a mistake to throw them out.”
“It’s not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia,” the president added. “They should be sitting at the table. I think [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would love to be back.”
Russia was formally invited to the forum in 1997 and joined up the following year — forming the G8 alongside the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom. (The European Union and its various predecessors have also participated in the group’s annual summits since 1981).
At the time then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin was invited to join the bloc, Western nations were hoping to smooth Moscow’s transition out of the repressive Communist political and economic system following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russian membership in the G7 was suspended in 2014, after Kremlin forces invaded and annexed Crimea following political upheaval in neighboring Ukraine that led to the ouster of that country’s Moscow-aligned president, Viktor Yanukovych.
In January 2017, Russia formally announced it would withdraw from the G7, a declaration that took effect the following year.
Near the end of Trump’s first term, he advocated for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 alongside then-Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, only to be rebuffed by the other member nations.
However, Trump claimed Thursday that the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had “agreed with me 100%” and “I think it would have been very helpful and it still would be helpful to have Russia be a part of that mix.
“If they were, I don’t think you would have had the problem that you have right now.”
The next G7 summit is due to take place in June in the Canadian Rockies resort of Kananaskis, Alberta.
On Wednesday, Trump revealed that he and Putin had spoken by phone and agreed to start talks aimed at ending Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Trump further suggested that he and Putin may trek to Saudi Arabia in the “not too distant future” for a face-to-face meeting.
