US President Donald Trump has postponed the G7 Summit till September and expressed his desire to expand the “outdated” bloc to G10 or G11, including India and three other nations to the grouping of the world’s top economies.
Trump has been over the weeks suggesting that there is “no greater example” of reopening amid the COVID-19 pandemic than holding an in-person G7 summit in America by the end of June.
The president, in an interaction with reporters travelling with him aboard the Air Force One from Florida to Washington DC on Saturday, said that he is “postponing it (the summit) until September” and plans to invite Russia, South Korea, Australia and India.
“I don’t feel that as a G7, it properly represents what’s going on in the world. It’s a very outdated group of countries,” he said.
“So it might be a G10, G11, and it could be after the election (in the US) is over...,” Trump said.
He said the G7 Summit could happen before the UN General Assembly session in September. “Maybe I’ll do it after the election. I think a good time would be before the election,” he said. The presidential election in the US is scheduled for November 3. Trump is seeking a second term in the White House.