Germany considers it unlikely for Russia to return to the G8
According to unnamed sources in a Der Spiegel report, the current format of the G7 is unlikely to be re-expanded to the G8 to include Russia, the Office of the Federal Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, stated, as reported by Deutsche Welle.
"The G8 format is dead," the source in the agency said. Merkel's staff is skeptical that Moscow will be able to fulfill the conditions for their return to the Group of Eight.
According to the journal's information, the US authorities are against the resumption of the G8.
In mid-April, German Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said before a meeting of foreign ministers of G7 in Hiroshima that he would like to see the revival of the G8 format. "I'd want to hope that the G7 will not remain the constant format. We have to create conditions for a return to G8,” the Minister said. “It is obvious that no serious international conflict can be solved without Russia."
Last fall, Germany announced that the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine and cooperation in Syria were necessarily conditions for the return of Russia to the G8. In the summer, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that at the moment she considers a return to G8 “unthinkable.” The German leader explained that G7 includes countries that share democratic values and the rule of law, and, in her opinion, at the moment Russia is not such a state.
Last week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that G8 is a thing of the past for Moscow and that there is no sense in “reviving” this format. "This is a repetition of the past; there is no element of novelty, so the participation of Russia in G8, in my opinion, is a completely irrelevant question," the diplomat said.
The Kremlin, commenting on Ryabkov's statement, indicated that the question of the return of the G8 is not on the agenda. "We are much more interested in participating in the Group of 20," said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Putin.
Group of Eight refers to an informal association of Russia, Great Britain, Germany, USA, Italy, France, Canada and Japan. Russia participated in the group from 1997 to 2014. After the annexation of Crimea, Russia was suspended from the group.