The United States and six major allies constituting G7 have effectively ousted Russia from the larger G8 club, relocated their planned June summit from Sochi to Brussels and threatened Moscow with tougher sanction if it escalated its military intervention in Ukraine.
Russia, however, sought to brush aside the G7 action as inconsequential, with its Foreign Minister Sergei lavrov remarking: “The G8 is an informal club. No one hands out membership cards, and no one can be kicked out of it.” As he put it, it’s not the G8, but G20 which decides all economic and financial issues.
A joint statement issued after President Barack Obama held a meeting with fellow G7 leaders at The Hague on Monday condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea after holding an “illegal referendum” in violation of Ukraine’s constitution, adding: “We do not recognise either.”
Announcing their boycott of the Sochi summit that was slated to be hosted by Russia in June, the G7 leaders practically disbanded the G8 forum, stating: “We will suspend our participation in the G8 until Russia changes course and the environment comes back to where the G8 is able to have a meaningful discussion”.
“We have also advised our Foreign Ministers not to attend the April meeting in Moscow. In addition, we have decided that G7 Energy Ministers will meet to discuss ways to strengthen our collective energy security,” said The Hague Declaration, issued by the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy.
After the meeting, US Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters: “As long as it is flagrantly violating international law and the order the G7 has helped build since the end of the Cold War, there is no reason to engage with Russia.”
The G7 leaders, who met on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, threatened Moscow with the possibility of “coordinated sectoral sanctions that will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy, if Russia continues to escalate this situation”.
“Russia has a clear choice to make. Diplomatic avenues to de-escalate the situation remain open, and we encourage the Russian Government to take them,” the statement said, asking Moscow to “respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, begin discussions with the Government of Ukraine, and avail itself of offers of international mediation and monitoring to address any legitimate concerns”. The G8 was formed in 1998 after the G7 decided to expand itself by adding Russia to its club of major industrial nations.
While President Obama has ruled out a military intervention in Ukraine to deal with Russia, US officials said Moscow would face stiffer, coordinated sanctions dealing with its energy, banking and defence sectors if it were to attempt any further military push into Ukraine.