The results of the latest Group of Seven (G7) summit in Italy showcase that Russia's return to a format is generally not needed, Russia's Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said.
"This once again confirms the correctness of the Russian leadership's position that somehow returning to the eight format is, first, not a very promising matter and, second, not entirely needed," Sputnik cited the diplomat as saying.
Chizhov underscored the "latent transatlantic contradictions" that were laid bare over the weekend, saying "this is well known both in speeches and in the content of the final documents."
A senior research fellow at the European Research Centre of the International Relations Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladimir Olenchenko, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that the G7 summit in Taormina showed a deep split in the format. "First and foremost, in the international trade. After the crisis of 2007-2009, global economy has developed sluggishly, and many believe that the main obstacle to its growth was protectionism, which restricts international trade. Trump said that the United States will give preference to bilateral ties, which in the first place affects the interests of the European Union: Trump is ready to develop relations only separately with Germany, separately with France, etc. This cannot but irritate the Europeans, but they did not found a common language, because the final declaration says only about the intention of the parties to continue negotiations on the issue of international trade," he pointed out.
"The same situation with the climate change issue: Trump believes that this problem does not exist, and therefore the US will not participate in mechanisms to mitigate climate change. There is an economic background here, since industrial production in the US is the main source of harmful emissions into the atmosphere, and therefore Washington will be forced to introduce these standards in the US territory, which will increase costs and reduce the competitiveness of American goods," Vladimir Olenchenko stressed.
Such disagreements on the key issues for G7 countries' interaction can in the future lead to the loss of the importance of the G7 format. "There are now trends in the division of the three centers of power: the US-Canada-Japan trio, the Europeans France-Italy-Germany, and the United Kingdom. If the disagreements between them intensify, the expediency in the G7 meetings will be called into question," the senior research fellow at the European Research Centre of the International Relations Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences concluded.
