The head of the European Union’s council Donald Tusk said Saturday that would the EU agree with President Trump’s assessment that Russia should be allowed back into the Group of 7 (G-7) nations “under no condition.”
Tusk, head of the European Council, said the nations could not accept Trump’s position that Russia’s annexation of Crimea, previously part of Ukraine, was partially justified, according to Reuters.
Russia’s annexation of the region in 2014 was cited as the main reason for its suspension from the G-7, formerly the G-8, that year.
{mosads}“One year ago, in Canada, President Trump suggested reinviting Russia to G7, stating openly that Crimea’s annexation by Russia was partially justified. And that we should accept this fact,” Tusk said, according to the news service.
“Under no condition can we agree with this logic,” Tusk reportedly continued.
The president renewed calls for Russia to rejoin the G-7 ahead of the group’s meeting in France, which began Saturday.
“We talk about Russia because I’ve been to numerous G-7 meetings,” Trump said on Tuesday during a press conference with Romania’s president. “I think it’s much more appropriate to have Russia in.”
“I guess President Obama, because Putin outsmarted him, President Obama thought it was not a good idea to have Russia in,” he added, saying: “That’s not the way it should work.”
Trump argued before the group’s last summit that the G-7 would be more effective with Russia in the organization at the negotiating table.
“Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run,” Trump said at the time. “And in the G-7, which used be the G-8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”