Opinion | Russia will not be Donald Trump’s tool in US diplomatic war against China

Name: Trump administration bans Chinese passenger airlines from flying to US destinations
Uploaded: 2020-06-09T17:00:14.000Z
Duration: 1 min 39 s
Description: Trump administration bans Chinese passenger airlines from flying to US destinations

Suggestions that Russia be readmitted into an expanded G7 appear to be part of a ploy to make China look abandoned by its friends

Russia does not want to risk its relations with established partners for the sake of joining some exclusive clubs where it is not even wanted

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Chinese President Xi Jinping takes part remotely in a ceremony inaugurating the Power of Siberia pipeline via a video link, alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin (not in picture), in Sochi, Russia, on December 2 last year. Photo: Sputnik / AFP

Danil Bochkov

Published: 1:00am, 10 Jun 2020Updated: 5:18am, 10 Jun 2020

US President Donald Trump said on May 30 that the G7 had become outdated and did not represent what’s going on in the world. He suggested bringing in Russia, India, South Korea and Australia for this year’s summit, which spurred resentment among US allies vis-à-vis Russia as an attendee. The loudest concerns were voiced by the United Kingdom and Canada, who have rebuked Russia for its outlaw behaviour.

Trump’s proposal to restart Russian participation in the Group of 7 – formerly known as the Group of 8 – is nothing new. He made similar suggestions in 2018 and August 2019, when he claimed that former president Barack Obama was “outsmarted” by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said that was Obama’s motive for excluding Russia from the meeting.

At the time Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country was ready to consider any proposals about re-establishing the G8. Less than a month later, Putin reiterated Russia’s openness to revitalising the G8 but also raised doubts of its effectiveness without China and India.

It was a vivid signal that Russia recognises a changing global environment with new actors. It does not consider the G7 or G8 to be an effective tool of global governance but views it as one of many cooperative platforms. Russian experts also take a very sceptical view on the prospects for the G8, which they see falling short of representing the true character of a new world order instead of a Western-dominated one.

There is speculation about the motives behind Trump’s suggestion to expand the G7 format. It could be explained either by his attempts to draw attention away from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s rejecting an invitation to the meeting in Washington or the desire to curtail China’s global rise and orchestrate a global backlash against it.

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Trump administration bans Chinese passenger airlines from flying to US destinations

China is facing attacks on all the fronts, starting from being reprimanded over the Covid-19 pandemic and accusations of misdoings involving Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang, the trade war, its tech programme “Made in China 2025” and so on.