On Saturday, US President Donald Trump had reportedly said that he would postpone the G-7 summit as the current format is “very outdated group of countries”. Besides, he had expressed the desire to invite India along with Russia, Australia and South Korea the summit. “I’m postponing it because I don’t feel that as a G7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world”, Trump was quoted as saying.
Whether the expansion of the G-7 summit to G-11 is permanent cannot be ascertained at this point, but this highlights the increasing importance of India in global politics. According to White House spokesperson, Alyssa Farah, the US President wants countries to discuss China at the meeting. The summit is now likely to be delayed at least till September.
Amidst the Coronavirus outbreak, Donald Trump had cancelled the summit in March but had decided to hold the meeting recently. As per reports, the US President was keen on sending a positive message to the world that the country was returning back to normal. The G-7 summit, which was scheduled to be hosted by the United States, would have featured countries including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
While the idea of an in-person meeting was endorsed by French President Emmanuel Macron, Cananda’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited health risks to decline such an idea. Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Markel had also refused to attend the summit, owing to the Coronavirus scare. The meeting was supposed to be held between June 10 and June 12 this year. Earlier, Trump had said that he did not want the global epidemic to stop the G-7 summit.
Donald Trump attacks China
On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that the USA will cut off ties with the World Health Organisation (WHO), besides imposing sanctions on China. The unprecedented decision came at the backdrop of China’s mishandling of the Coronavirus outbreak, endangering the lives of millions of people and failing to uphold the autonomy of Hong Kong.
He had informed that he would sign an executive order and prevent the entry of ‘some foreign nationals’ from China whom the State Department had deemed to be a potential threat to US security. With the goal of protecting American investors, Trump had further directed the Financial markets and his team to take cognisance of the practices of Chinese Companies listed on US financial markets.
Britain proposes D-10, alliance of democracies including India
Last week, the Great Britain had proposed a new alliance of 10 5G countries, dubbed as ‘D10’, to align against China and reduce its reliance on Beijing, especially on Chinese telecom giant Huawei. Britain has planned to club India, South Korea and Australia along with G7 countries – UK, US, Italy, Germany, France, Japan and Canada – to create alternative suppliers of 5G equipment and other technologies to avoid dependence on China for vital technologies.