Trump calls for Russia to return to G8

U.S. President Trump called for Russia’s return to the
Group of Eight bloc of the world’s most advanced economies during this
weekend’s meeting of the G7. “Why are we having a meeting without Russia?,”
Trump told reporters in Washington on June 8 as he left the White House to fly
to Canada for the G7 summit, as reported by Bloomberg News. He reiterated the
call for Russia’s return the next day. “I would rather see Russia in the G8 as
opposed to the G7,” he told a press conference on the G7 summit’s sidelines.
Trump also blamed U.S. President Obama for allowing Crimea to be annexed by
Russia.

In response to Trump’s calls for Russia’s return,
Western leaders – including EU President Donand Tusk, Canadian Foreign Minister
Chrystia Freeland and UK Prime Minister Theresa May – issued statements firmly
denouncing Trump’s calls for Russia’s return.

Zenon Zawada: Ever since
becoming president, Trump has fully adopted a hawkish neo-conservative foreign
policy, particularly on Russia. That’s despite having campaigned for an America
First isolationist foreign policy. Trump’s comments this weekend indicate that
he personally would have pursued a détente with Russia, but decided not to
fight that battle and find compromise with the globalists, both in the
Republican and Democrat parties. Indeed Trump has been tough on Russia,
enhancing U.S. sanctions and providing lethal, defensive weapons to Ukraine,
which Obama deliberately avoided.

While Trump is likely to continue making such comments,
we expect he will continue pursuing the neo-conservative foreign policy because
he doesn’t have enough support to do otherwise. Among the G7, only Italy backed
Trump’s call for Russia return to the G8 after the March parliamentary
elections brought a nationalist government to power. Only when more
nationalists come to power, both in the U.S. and the Europe, will Trump be able
to offer a détente to Putin. We don’t expect that will happen in the next three
years, though nationalism is certainly on the rise in the West and we expect
more nationalists to gradually get elected.