German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas expressed his support for South Korea´s participation in the possible summit of the seven major industrialized countries in the United States, but he opposed Russia´s participation.
After a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, the minister of the Social Democratic Party said in Berlin on Monday: The reason behind Russia´s exclusion from the group that includes the most important economic powers is Moscow´s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Maas added that he does not see peace in eastern Ukraine as imminent, "as long as this is not the case, I do not see the benefit of inviting Russia to this formula again."
America holds the presidency this year of the group, which also includes Britain, France, Japan, Italy and Canada, and Russia was excluded from the group in 2014.
US President Donald Trump originally wanted to hold the summit last June in Florida, after which he expressed his desire to hold it at his country headquarters in Camp David, and finally he expressed his desire to hold it in Washington.
And German Chancellor Angela Merkel made it clear that she was not ready to travel in June to Washington to attend the summit due to the Corona pandemic. In the wake of this, Trump announced the postponement of the summit until next September, and also announced his desire to invite Russia, South Korea, India and Australia to attend the summit.
Trump recently stated that he feels that the "very old group" of Seven does not properly reflect what is happening in the world.
Maas attributed his desire for South Korea to participate in the summit to the fact that "South Korea is one of the countries that have special importance at the global level, and it is a valuable partner for us, so I welcome this very much."
Maas agreed to expand the group in the long term, and said that the participants should talk about this topic.
