Politics

Bolsonaro says spoke with Trump about Brazil’s entry into expanded G7

Rio de Janeiro, Jun 1 (efe-epa).- The Brazilian president said on Monday that he spoke with his United States counterpart about Brazil’s possible entry to an expanded Group of Seven (G7) countries being proposed by the US.

Jair Bolsonaro referred to Brazil’s possible admission into the group of the world’s wealthiest countries in a message he posted on his Twitter account in which he said he addressed the matter in a telephone conversation he had with Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro wrote that Trump and he spoke about the expanded G7, which he insisted that Brazil must be a part of, as well as about Brazilian steel.

The far-right leader did not provide more details or go into the matter further.

On Saturday, Trump announced that he was postponing the G7 leaders’ summit, adding that it was “outdated” and that he would like to see more countries added to the group.

“I’m postponing it because I don’t feel that as a G7 it properly represents what’s going on in the world. It is a very outdated group of countries,” Donald Trump told reporters traveling with him aboard Air Force One back to Washington DC after visiting Florida to attend the launch of the NASA-SpaceX Demo-2 mission from Cape Canaveral.

Trump said he would like to see more countries within the group made up of the US, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, and Germany.

“We want Australia, we want India, we want South Korea. And what do we have? That’s a nice group of countries right there,” the US president said. “So it might be a G10, G11.”

Trump also discussed the matter on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he invited to the upcoming G7 summit.

“Donald Trump informed about his idea of holding a G7 summit with a possible invitation (to) the leaders of Russia, Australia, India and the Republic of Korea,” Kremlin said in a statement.

The G7 leaders’ meeting, which the US is to host this year as it occupies the rotating presidency of the group, was scheduled from June 10 to 12.

Trump announced in April the cancellation of the in-person summit due to the rapid expansion and severity of the coronavirus pandemic and said it would take place virtually.

As an alternative date, Trump on Saturday said that the summit could be held over the weekend just before or after the UN General Assembly, which is scheduled to start on Sep.15, or after the US presidential election in November. EFE-EPA

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