President of the United States Donald trump plans to invite Australia, India, South Korea and Russia to join the upcoming meeting of the group of seven (G7), which led to the emergence of rumors that he is trying to form a bloc to counter China, reports South China Morning Post.
trump said, if he wants to become G7 G11 forever, but said he wanted to invite the four to participate in the summit and said that a group of “very outdated”.
Press Secretary of the White house Alyssa Farah said that trump wants at the summit discussed the issues of China, and the statement follows rising tensions in relations between Washington and Beijing on issues such as combating pandemic and coronavirus in Beijing’s relations with Hong Kong.
South Korea and Australia are long-standing allies of the US, and the last country supported calls for an independent investigation of the source of the emergence of a pandemic coronavirus, and also expressed concern about the planned adoption of the draft law on national security of Hong Kong.
India, which is located in the centre of the strategy of Washington in the Indo-Pacific region also has a number of differences with China, including the current standoff on the border in Ladakh.
However, Russia is building economic and strategic partnership with Beijing, and was expelled from the group of eight in 2014, accusing the annexation of the Crimea.
However, trump repeatedly suggested that the country was invited back due to its global strategic importance.
Neither Feng, Director of the Institute of American studies Chinese Academy of social Sciences, said that trump is trying to mobilize support from allies in the containment of China.
“the Intention is simply to isolate China — said No. Is just the beginning, and will be followed by additional containment measures”.
In the past decade, China sought to increase its influence in mnohostrannetheir institutions and platforms that in combination with the increasing economic power has caused growing concern in Washington.
for Example, trump cited the growing influence of Beijing in the world health organization (who), when he announced that the United States will terminate their relationship with the organization.
the Idea of expanding the G7, whose members are USA, Italy, Germany, France, UK, Japan and Canada, may be the last attempt by Washington to form an international coalition without China.