The Guardian app

× Instant alerts. Offline reading.

View
Tailored to you.
FREE – on the App Store

Sign in
Contribute

News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle

World Europe US Americas Asia Australia More

G7

Trump cancels summit but

says he will invite Putin to
later G7 event
US president intends to convene 11
nations at later date in push to
counter China

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Sun 31 May 2020 12.45 BST

662

Donald Trump has been forced to cancel a

planned face-to-face summit of G7 leaders
in June and now wants to host an expanded
meeting in September dedicated to
countering China, to which Vladimir Putin
would be invited.

Trump revealed on Saturday that he had

cancelled the June meeting, which he had
billed as a symbol of the US “transitioning
back to greatness”, after the German
chancellor, Angela Merkel, told him in a
phone call that she saw the summit in
Washington DC as a health risk. Hundreds
of security staff, journalists and officials
also attend the two-day summits.

Reports suggest the call between Merkel

and Trump on Thursday was stormy,
ranging over German plans for the Nord
Stream 2 gas pipeline, Hong Kong, and the
potential health risks of a face-to-face
summit.

US awol from Trump’s new plan,

world stage as outlined to reporters on
China tries on
global leadership Saturday, is to host an
for size expanded G7 meeting
Read more including Russia,
Australia, South Korea and
India, dedicated to building an alliance
against China. The plan is likely to be
controversial because Russia has been
banned from western-led summits since
Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and is
not seen as a natural ally in the defence of
human rights in Hong Kong.

Merkel and the French president,

Emmanuel Macron, will also be reluctant to
provide Trump with a prestigious platform
to set out his China strategy weeks before
the US presidential election. The
Republicans see a tough approach towards
China as an election-winning formula, even
though his likely Democrat challenger, Joe
Biden, is also sharply critical of Beijing’s
modern direction.

The G7 brings together the US, Japan,

France, Germany, the UK, Canada and Italy.

Justifying the cancellation of the June

meeting and his proposed new format,
Trump said the group’s current makeup was
“very outdated” and does not properly
represent “what’s going on in the world”.
He said he had not set a precise date for the
new meeting, but suggested it might be
around the time of the annual UN general
assembly in New York, which is normally
held in September, but there is no
guarantee it will go ahead this year. The
proposed “G11” meeting might also be held
after the presidential election, he said.

Trump caught many capitals and White

House officials by surprise on 20 May, when
he tweeted: “Now that our Country is
‘Transitioning back to Greatness,’ I am
considering rescheduling the G-7, on the
same or similar date, in Washington, DC, at
the legendary Camp David. The other
members are also beginning their
COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all –
normalization!”

It contradicted the US government’s

previous announcement that the G7
meeting would be a teleconference as a
result of the coronavirus pandemic. The
White House, however, confirmed within
days that the meeting would be held on 25
and 26 June. It had originally been
scheduled for 10 to 12 June at Camp David.

The Japanese foreign ministry had been

reluctant for the prime minister, Shinzō
Abe, to travel to Washington, in part
because of the so-called Dominic
Cummings effect.

Had Abe attended the summit, he would

have been required either to quarantine
himself for two weeks or take a Covid-19
test on his return. Officials told Japanese
media they did not want Abe to be seen to
be getting privileged treatment, and cited
the backlash the UK prime minister, Boris
Johnson, has faced for clearing his senior
adviser of breaking UK quarantine rules.

Macron was also reported to be ambivalent

about a face-to-face meeting in June, but
Merkel’s spokesman broke the news that
she could not guarantee her personal
attendance.

European leaders are deeply critical of

China’s intervention in Hong Kong, but the
plan Trump set out to confront Beijing in a
10-minute address on Friday left many
questions unanswered about the extent to
which he is prepared to disengage the US
economy from China or impose sanctions.

The EU has not yet supported sanctions, but

a meeting of foreign ministers on Friday
agreed that the language of a paper on
China completed in early 2019 needed
toughening.

The EU is also opposed to Trump’s decision

to terminate Washington’s membership of
the World Health Organization, privately
saying the US president had not even
formulated a coherent reform agenda for
the UN body, let alone given the WHO time
to respond to any US proposal.

The UK is hosting a virtual coronavirus

vaccine summit on 4 June intended to
establish a global alliance and raise funds
for research, and will hope the US decision
to withdraw from the WHO does not
dominate the event.

News is under threat ...

… just when we need it the most. Millions
of readers around the world are flocking to
the Guardian in search of honest,
authoritative, fact-based reporting that
can help them understand the biggest
challenge we have faced in our lifetime.
But at this crucial moment, news
organisations are facing an unprecedented
existential challenge. As businesses
everywhere feel the pinch, the advertising
revenue that has long helped sustain our
journalism continues to plummet. We
need your help to fill the gap.
We believe every one of us deserves equal
access to quality news and measured
explanation. So, unlike many others, we
made a different choice: to keep Guardian
journalism open for all, regardless of
where they live or what they can afford to
pay. This would not be possible without
financial contributions from our readers,
who now support our work from 180
countries around the world.
We have upheld our editorial
independence in the face of the
disintegration of traditional media – with
social platforms giving rise to
misinformation, the seemingly
unstoppable rise of big tech and
independent voices being squashed by
commercial ownership. The Guardian’s
independence means we can set our own
agenda and voice our own opinions. Our
journalism is free from commercial and
political bias – never influenced by
billionaire owners or shareholders. This
makes us different. It means we can
challenge the powerful without fear and
give a voice to those less heard.
Reader financial support has meant we can
keep investigating, disentangling and
interrogating. It has protected our
independence, which has never been so
critical. We are so grateful.
We need your support so we can keep
delivering quality journalism that’s open
and independent. And that is here for the
long term. Every reader contribution,
however big or small, is so valuable.
Support the Guardian from as little as $1 –
and it only takes a minute. Thank you.

Support the Guardian

Remind me in July

Topics
G7
Donald Trump / Angela Merkel / Russia / Europe / news

Subscribe

Subscribe to
Guardian Weekly
Subscribe to The Guardian’s
essential news magazine,
with 6 issues for $6. Home
delivery available wherever
you are.
Subscribe now
An alternative to
breaking news
A curated, finishable and
progressive look at a week in
the life of the world. Slow
down and get a global
perspective with our in-depth
journalism.
Subscribe now

Most popular

World Europe US Americas Asia Australia

News Opinion Sport Culture Lifestyle

Sign up to our daily email

Email address Sign up

Contact us All topics

Complaints & All writers
corrections
Digital newspaper
SecureDrop archive
Work for us Facebook
Privacy settings Twitter
Privacy policy
Cookie policy
Terms & conditions
Help
Advertise with us Support
Search UK jobs The Guardian
Available for everyone,
Discount Codes funded by readers

Contribute

Subscribe

Back to top
© 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated
companies. All rights reserved.