‘BIG MISTAKE’: Trump Suggests Russia Deserves G7 Membership Restored

President Donald Trump kicked off the Group of Seven, or G7, summit on Monday by suggesting that Russia deserves a seat at the table.

The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States are gathered in Alberta, Canada, for the annual summit of leading industrialized nations.

“The G7 used to be the G8,” Trump said during his first meeting of the summit with new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. “Barack Obama and a person named [then-Canadian Prime Minister Justin] Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in.”

The booting of Russia was a “big mistake,” Trump said. Obama and other world leaders decided to oust Russia from the group in 2014 for annexing Crimea from Ukraine.

“This was a big mistake. You wouldn’t have that war. You know you have your enemy at the table, I don’t even consider, he wasn’t really an enemy at that time,” Trump said. “There was no concept—if I were president, this war would have never happened.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to Trump, the president said, but he “doesn’t speak to anybody else, because he was insulted when he got thrown out of the G8.”  

Trump also said it would be “not a bad idea” to include China in the G7.

Carney invited the leaders of several nonmember countries to attend the summit: India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Ukraine, Australia, and South Korea, and the head of NATO.

The focus on Monday was expected to be the global economy. Leaders are expected to discuss problems, such as the Canadian wildfires, drug smuggling, and immigration.

On Tuesday, leaders are expected to add Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to the group to discuss the Ukraine-Russia war.
 

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