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Russia to consider potential offers on reinstating G8, says foreign minister

Lavrov recalled that President Putin had stated that there is no G8 before the start of the talks with French President Emmanuel Macron

MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. The Russian side is ready to consider potential offers on reinstating the G8, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated during a joint press conference on the outcomes of the talks with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.

The Russian top diplomat reminded that President Vladimir Putin had stated that there is no G8 before the start of the talks with French President Emmanuel Macron. "There is the G7, they make decisions within its own circle. If any of the decisions made there include an offer to Russia, we will consider it, of course, and provide our response," Lavrov said in response to a question on the possible return to the G8.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that "it’s much more appropriate to have Russia in" [the G8]. According to a senior US administration official cited by CNN, Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held a telephone conversation on Tuesday and agreed that the Russian president should be invited to the G7 summit in 2020. According to CNN, Trump plans to broach the topic at a G7 summit scheduled to take place in Biarritz, France, on August 24-26.

The G7 is a group of industrialized nations that includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The group was renamed the G8 in 1997 when Russia joined the club. However, following the 2014 events in Ukraine that created a crisis in relations between Russia and the West, the group’s western members decided to revert to the G7 model.

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Sergey Lavrov Donald Trump

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