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Trump says Russia should be reinstated in group of leading industrialized nations

Allie Malloy and Nicole Gaouette, CNN — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 11:01:50 +0000

Quebec City (CNN)President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia should be reinstated to a leading group of industrialized nations ahead of his visit to the G7 summit this weekend.

Trump’s statement is an extraordinary break from key US allies, and particularly striking given Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. A special counsel investigation into whether Trump campaign officials colluded with Russia is underway, though Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations.

“Russia should be in this meeting,” Trump told reporters upon leaving the White House for the summit, which is being held in Charlevoix, Canada. “They should let Russia come back in, because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”

Russia was suspended from the group — then known as the G8 — in 2014 after the majority of member countries allied against Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which Russia continues to hold.

Asked in an interview earlier this week about what would need to happen for Russia to return Crimea to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Austria’s ORF broadcasting corporation that “there are no such conditions and there can never be.”

Friction with key allies

Trump’s comments underscore the growing divide between the US, under his administration, and Washington’s closest allies.

The President’s willingness to look the other way on Russia’s annexation of Crimea — the first violation of a European country’s borders since World War II — will particularly deepen the chill with allies such as the UK, France and Germany, which are already furious about US trade tariffs, and Trump’s rejection of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement.

“We always been clear we should engage with Russia where it is in our interests, but we need to remember why G8 became the G7: it was because Russia illegally annexed Crimea,” a European diplomat told CNN. “Since then, we have seen an increase in Russian misbehavior and attempts to undermine democracy in Europe. It is not appropriate for Russia to rejoin until we see it behaving responsibly. Putin should get nothing for free.”

At home, Trump’s continuing failure to condemn Russia for its aggressive behavior and his ongoing push to restore more normal relations is bound to raise questions, once again, about his affinity for Moscow and Putin.

Sen. John McCain blasted Trump for his comments, saying “The President has inexplicably shown our adversaries the deference and esteem that should be reserved for our closest allies.”

The Arizona Republican, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that Putin “chose to make Russia unworthy of membership in the G-8 by invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea. Nothing he has done since then has changed that most obvious fact. Every day, Russian-led separatist forces are killing Ukrainians in the Donbass. Every day, Putin’s forces are helping the Assad regime slaughter the Syrian people.

And every day, through assassinations, cyber-attacks, and malign influence, Russia is assaulting democratic institutions all over the world.”

The statement added, “Those nations that share our values and have sacrificed alongside us for decades are being treated with contempt. This is the antithesis of so-called ‘principled realism’ and a sure path to diminishing America’s leadership in the world.”

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, also a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, “Putin is not our friend and he is not the President’s buddy. He is a thug using Soviet-style aggression to wage a shadow war against America, and our leaders should act like it.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump was turning US foreign policy “into an international joke, doing lasting damage to our country.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden also criticized Trump’s remarks, writing on Twitter, “Putin’s Russia invaded its neighbors, violated our sovereignty by undermining elections, and attacks dissidents abroad. Yet our President wants to reward him with a seat at the table while alienating our closest democratic allies. It makes no sense.”

The comment not only surprised American allies and politicians, but Trump’s own National Security Council staff.

A National Security Council official told reporters in Quebec Trump’s comments were not planned.

When asked about whether there was a potential for a summit between Russian President Putin and President Trump, the official said there have been no discussions in terms of when, where or what that summit might look like. The official added that there was some chatter, but it’s not something the NSC is working on internally.

Acrimonious start to G7

Trump’s comments also come at a time when Trump is on the outs with other members of the G7. On Thursday, Trump engaged in a bitter back-and-forth with French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over Twitter, both of whom he’ll meet face-to-face on Friday.

Trump is expecting a knock-down, drag-out fight with top US allies over trade during his time at the conference, held in remote Quebec. It’s a battle he believes he can win, but which he’s unenthusiastic about waging in person, people familiar with his thinking say.

On Thursday, Macron said the leaders would not rule out a 6+1 communique as opposed to the traditional document signed by all leaders at the end of the summit with shared goals and principles.

One G7 leader, however, quickly backed Trump’s statement: Italy’s newly sworn in Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, who said it would be in “everyone’s interest” for Russia to be reinstated.

Although Conte, a former law professor, has not voiced particularly strong opinions on Russia in the past, his two deputies — the leader of the Five Star movement and the far-right League Party, who have considered influence over him — have frequently expressed pro-Russia views.

CNN’s Elise Labott, Matt Wells, Gianluca Mezzofiore and Hilary McGann contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/08/politics/russia-g7/index.html

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Italian PM breaks with EU, backs Trump’s call for Russia to return to G8

David M. Herszenhorn — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 09:44:31 +0000

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is shielded from the rain by an aide as he arrives in Quebec | Geoff Robins/AFP via Getty Images

New Italian PM agrees with US president that Kremlin should be back at the table.

LA MALBAIE, Canada — Italy’s new prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, broke sharply with the EU on Friday at his first international summit, and joined U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Russia to be reinstated to the exclusive club of industrialized nations.

Trump called for Russia’s reinstatement as he left the White House to travel to the G7 leaders’ meeting in Quebec.

The Western powers and Japan ejected Russia from the G8 in 2014 in response to the Kremlin’s invasion, and subsequent annexation, of Crimea.

Conte posted his support for Trump’s view on Twitter, apparently between meetings with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. It’s unclear if Tusk or Juncker were aware of Conte’s statement before their meetings.

At a news conference, Tusk and Juncker mostly sidestepped questions about Conte’s position, saying they expected there would be overall agreement on Russia policy. But they also pushed back on Trump’s suggestion that Russia rejoin the club.

“I see a lot of speculation about G6 plus 1 or G7 minus 1, or G7 plus one,” Tusk said. “But let’s leave seven as it is. It’s a lucky number. At least in our culture.”

Tusk added that the G7 faced enough obstacles in their quest for unified positions without adding Russia back into the mix. Juncker, meanwhile, noted that EU leaders were re-engaging Russia in other formats, such as a recent economic forum in St. Petersburg attended by French President Emmanuel Macron.

But he said Russia still had to be held accountable for its actions.

“As we see it, Russia is in violation of international law because of its annexation of Crimea, equally because of what it has done in the east of Ukraine,” Juncker said. “Over and above that, of course, there are good reasons leaving these factors aside to renew our relationship with Russia and this is something which we intend to do,” he said. “I expect that it will be something we discuss.”

“But,” he added, “we need to take a stand against an aggressive approach and aggressive action on the part of Russia.”

Since Russia’s ejection, Western nations, including the U.S. and all EU countries, have been unified in the need to maintain economic sanctions and other pressure on Russia over its military intervention in Ukraine, in Crimea and in the eastern Donbas region, where the Kremlin continues to support an armed insurgency.

–Other G7 powers have not indicated any willingness to ease the pressure on Russia.–

Conte’s statement adds further diplomatic chaos to the G7 leaders’ summit, which was already descending into a chaotic war of words on Twitter. Trump on Thursday lashed out at the summit host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and French President Emmanuel Macron, who criticized Trump for imposing unilateral tariffs on steel and aluminum.

While Trump was still traveling, and expected to arrive late at the summit, his comment calling for Russia to be reinstated is certain to further inflame tensions in Quebec.

On the South Lawn of the White House, Trump claimed to be Putin’s worst nightmare but then said “Russia should be in this meeting. Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting? And I would recommend, and it’s up to them, but Russia should be in the meeting. They should be a part of it.

“You know, whether you like it or not — and it may not be politically correct — but we have a world to run. And in the G7, which used to be the G8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in. Because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.” It was unclear what negotiation Trump had in mind.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, who was on an official trip to China, told reporters Russia was focused “on other formats.”

Other G7 powers have not indicated any willingness to ease the pressure on Russia, and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has worked hard to maintain unity on the issue in Brussels.

Conte’s statement will be especially problematic for Mogherini, who is Italian.

The first draft of the contract drawn up between the two parties in Conte’s government — the far-right League and the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement — contained a line calling for the end of Russian sanctions “immediately.” The text was amended in later versions.

In his first speech in the Italian parliament this week, Conte said that Italy remains a committed NATO partner but he added that “we will promote a revising of sanctions, starting with those that demean Russia’s civil society.”

Yet he didn’t indicate whether this should take place ‘immediately.” That’s because Rome has not yet decided whether to veto the rolling over of the sanctions during a meeting of EU leaders at the end of the month.

“We have to think about it,” said the League’s leader Matteo Salvini on Thursday at a reception at the Russian embassy in Rome.

Russia had been scheduled to host the G8 summit in 2014, and was planning to hold the leaders’ gathering in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, which was also the site of the Winter Olympics that year. Instead, officials quickly rescheduled the G7 summit for Brussels, the capital of the European Union, which participates in both the G7 and the G20 but normally does not host summits. Russian remains a part of the G20.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/conte-trump-russia-g8-breaks-with-eu-backs-call-for-to-return/

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