India may be excluded from G7 summit due to stance on Russia

Bloomberg reported, Virtue wants to invite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a guest to the G7 summit scheduled for June, but may reconsider due to New Delhi’s refusal to condemn Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

Bloomberg reports that the guest list for the G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany, was compiled prior to the hostilities. Ukraine at the end of February, including countries such as Senegal, South Africa and Indonesia.

Asked for comment, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman said the head of the German government “would like to see as many international partners as possible join the Russia sanctions” and the list of visiting officials. G7 invites will be revealed when finalized.

The G7 consists of seven countries that were once the world’s largest economies in the 1970s, when the group was founded. G7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and USA. These same countries are at the forefront of the effort punish Russia with economic sanctions that crippled Moscow because of the military campaign in Ukraine.

Critics, meanwhile, argue that the G7 is an outdated institution that has failed to keep up with the times when new economic powers like China or India have risen to prominence. Many countries in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa have refused to join the US-led sanctions campaign against Russia. China said that NATO expansion in Europe set the stage for hostile actions.

India refuses to cut trade with Russia – the main supplier of weapons to the armed forces. India is also said to have increased its energy purchases from Russia just as the US and its allies tried to embargo Russian oil and gas.

A source told Bloomberg that Germany is not unaware of the stance of India. The magazine notes that Western nations are facing a similar diplomatic conundrum during the G20 summit in Indonesia later this year.

The G20 summit, which also includes Russia, is scheduled to take place in November 2022. Western countries on the one hand want that any final joint communiqué at the conference will contain some condemnation of Russia, but on the other hand do not want to see a public split on the issue.

Russia joins G7 in 1997, so the group changed its name to G8, but was then dropped again in 2014 – a move to punish Russia for its role in the Ukraine crisis. In 2014, an armed coup in Kiev overthrew Ukraine’s elected president, causing chaos in the eastern regions of Ukraine, with Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk seceding. Crimea was annexed to Russia in the same 2014 following a referendum, while Donetsk and Lugansk became self-proclaimed breakaway republics.

Russia attacked the neighboring country in late February, after accusing Ukraine of failing to live up to the terms of the Minsk agreement signed in 2014. Russia also recognized the independence of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Russia demands that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country and will never join the military bloc NATO led by the US. Kiev insists Russia’s attack is completely unprovoked and denies that it plans to retake the two republics in the Donbass by force.