Trump Calls for Russia to Be Readmitted to G-7

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called on the world’s leading economies Friday to reinstate Russia to the Group of 7 nations four years after it was cast out for annexing Crimea, once again putting him at odds with the leading U.S. allies in Europe and Asia.

The president made the suggestion to reporters as he headed to Canada for the annual meeting of the G-7, a gathering that already was promising to be crackling with tension over trade, Iran and Trump’s sharp-edged approach to foreign leaders.

Russia joined the group in the 1990s after emerging from the wreckage of the Soviet Union, making it the G-8, but its armed intervention in its neighbor Ukraine in 2014 and its seizure of the Crimean peninsula isolated it from other major powers.

The remaining members, led by the United States under President Barack Obama, expelled it in a sign of global resolve not to let established international borders be rewritten by force.

Trump spent Friday skirmishing with the leaders of two other members of the G-7, Canada and France, and decided to skip the end of the annual meeting being held in Quebec and fly Saturday morning to Singapore, where he plans to meet North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, for a landmark nuclear summit meeting Tuesday.

The notion of readmitting Russia to the world’s most exclusive club without any concession by the Kremlin reflects the unusually friendly approach that Trump has taken to Russia since becoming president, a policy at odds with both Republicans and Democrats in Washington as well as leaders in Europe.