National Post
|
|
Stephen
Harper and his fellow G7 leaders have indefinitely suspended Russia
from the Group of Eight until President Vladimir Putin “changes course.
TRENDINGRob Ford | Jim Flaherty | Flight MH370 | Quebec Election | Ukraine | Olivia Chow | Justin Trudeau | Canucks | Tim Hortons | Rex Murphy | BlackBerry
Russia suspended from G8 over annexation of Crimea, Group of Seven nations says
Associated Press and Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News | March 24, 2014 | Last Updated: Mar 24 4:56 PM ET
Jerry Lampen - Pool/Getty ImagesLeft
to right: President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy, Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French President Francois Hollande,
British Prime Minster David Cameron, U.S. President Barack Obama, German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Italian
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and President of the European Commission
Jose Manuel Barroso attend a meeting of the G7 leaders on March 24, 2014
in The Hague, Netherlands.
Stephen
Harper and his fellow G7 leaders have indefinitely suspended Russia
from the Group of Eight until President Vladimir Putin “changes course.”
In a joint statement, the Group of Seven nations said Monday they will meet without Russia. The move is aimed at isolating Moscow over its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and the presence of thousands of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border.
With Russia kicked out of what is one of the world’s most exclusive clubs, the G8 – scheduled for Sochi, Russia in early June – will become a G7. That summit will now take place in Brussels just before the 70th D-Day anniversary commemorations in France.
“So be it,” was the curt reaction of Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, shortly before Russia’s exclusion from the Group of 8 was announced. Lavrov has been in The Hague to attend a summit on nuclear security that has been running concurrently.
“If our Western partners believe the format has exhausted itself, we don’t cling to this format. We don’t believe it will be a big problem if it doesn’t convene,” Lavrov said.
An official statement on Russia’s exclusion from the G8 was expected later Monday.
The G7 nations issued the statement following an emergency meeting
Monday in the Netherlands. The leaders say they are ready to “intensify
actions” against Russia if Moscow escalates the conflict further.
The decision to bar Russia had been tipped on Saturday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and by at least three other leaders on Monday. It was reached by consensus. The move was made although the G8 and the G7 have no formal mechanisms for expelling or suspending any members.
The moves came amid a flurry of diplomatic jockeying as the U.S. and Europe grappled for ways to punish Russia for its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and to prevent Moscow from pressing further into Ukraine. Also in the Hague, in an unexpected development, Russia’s foreign minister met with his Ukrainian counterpart, the highest level of contact between the two nations since Russia moved forces into Crimea nearly a month ago.
The G7 roundtable, which lasted considerably longer than the scheduled one hour, took place in the Dutch prime minister’s residence. U.S. President Barack Obama, who convened the meeting, was seated between British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Harper was seated between French President Francois Hollande and Hermann Van Rumpuy, a Belgian who is president of the European Council.
Ahead of their private talks, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that the G7 would not join with Russia this year for the annual meeting of the Group of Eight.
“As long as the political environment for the G8 is not there, as at the moment, there is no G8 – neither as a concrete summit nor as a format,” said Merkel, one of Putin’s closest Western allies. Russia had been scheduled to host the summit this summer in Sochi, site of the recent Winter Olympics.
A Western diplomat said the G7 leaders would instead meet in Brussels in June. The choice of location was symbolic, putting the meeting in the headquarters city of the European Union and NATO, two organizations seeking to bolster ties with Ukraine.
White House officials indicated Obama was in step with Merkel. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said that as long as Putin keeps “flagrantly violating international law,” there’s no reason for the G7 to engage with Russia. At the same time, he suggested that the U.S. and other nations were not prepared to permanently disband the G8.
“The door is open to Russia to de-escalate the situation,” Rhodes said.
Russia’s actions have sparked one of Europe’s deepest political
crises in decades and drawn comparisons to the Cold War era’s tensions
between East and West. Obama and other Western leaders have condemned
Russia’s movements as a violation of international law and have ordered
economic sanctions on Putin’s close associates, though those punishments
appear to have done little to change the Russian leaders’ calculus.
Hours before world leaders began meeting in The Hague, Russian forces stormed a Ukrainian military base in Crimea, the third such action in as many days. Ukraine’s fledgling government responded by ordering its troops to pull back from the strategically important peninsula.
The G7 leaders were expected to discuss plans for increasing financial assistance to Ukraine’s central government.
Obama was also seeking to win support from European leaders for deeper sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy, including its energy industry.
But the U.S. leader was expected to face resistance from some European officials. Russia is one of the European Union’s largest trading partners and officials fear that the still economically shaky continent could suffer if Moscow retaliates, particularly by curbing oil and gas supplies.
In another attempt to isolate Russia, Obama held a separate meeting
Monday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose country frequently sides
with Moscow in disputes with the West.
The U.S. has been appealing to China’s vehement opposition to outside intervention in other nations’ domestic affairs and scored a symbolic diplomatic victory when Beijing abstained a week ago from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring Crimea’s secession referendum illegal. With Russia vetoing the measure and the 13 other council members voting in favor, China’s abstention served to isolate Moscow internationally.
“I believe ultimately that by working together, China and the United States can help strengthen international law and respect for the sovereignty of nations and establish the kind of rules internationally that allow all peoples to thrive,” Obama said while standing alongside Xi ahead of their hour-long meeting.
In a counterpoint to Obama and his G7 partners, a group of five major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – issued a statement Monday opposing sanctions and urging nations to work through the U.N. instead. The so-called BRICS nations said hostile language, sanctions and force do not “contribute to a sustainable and peaceful solution.”
The scheduled purpose for Obama’s long-planned trip to the Netherlands was the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, an international forum the president created during his first term that focuses on eliminating or securing the world’s nuclear materials. While the nuclear talks were overshadowed by the dispute with Russia, Obama did score a key victory on that front Monday when Japan announced that it was turning over to the U.S. a portion of its weapons-grade plutonium and highly-enriched uranium stockpiles.
Obama arrived in the Netherlands Monday morning after an overnight flight from Washington. He opened his visit with a stop at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, where he admired Rembrandt’s massive 17th-century painting “Night Watch.”
The president’s weeklong trip also includes stops in Brussels, where he’ll meet with European Union leaders, and Rome, where he’ll have an audience with Pope Francis. He’ll close his trip in Saudi Arabia, a visit aimed at soothing tensions with a key Gulf ally.
end quote from:
In a joint statement, the Group of Seven nations said Monday they will meet without Russia. The move is aimed at isolating Moscow over its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and the presence of thousands of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border.
With Russia kicked out of what is one of the world’s most exclusive clubs, the G8 – scheduled for Sochi, Russia in early June – will become a G7. That summit will now take place in Brussels just before the 70th D-Day anniversary commemorations in France.
“So be it,” was the curt reaction of Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, shortly before Russia’s exclusion from the Group of 8 was announced. Lavrov has been in The Hague to attend a summit on nuclear security that has been running concurrently.
“If our Western partners believe the format has exhausted itself, we don’t cling to this format. We don’t believe it will be a big problem if it doesn’t convene,” Lavrov said.
An official statement on Russia’s exclusion from the G8 was expected later Monday.
AP Photo/Evert-Jan Daniels, PoolRussia's
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addresses the media at the Nuclear
Security Summit (NSS) in The Hague, Netherlands, on Monday, March 24,
2014.
The decision to bar Russia had been tipped on Saturday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and by at least three other leaders on Monday. It was reached by consensus. The move was made although the G8 and the G7 have no formal mechanisms for expelling or suspending any members.
The moves came amid a flurry of diplomatic jockeying as the U.S. and Europe grappled for ways to punish Russia for its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and to prevent Moscow from pressing further into Ukraine. Also in the Hague, in an unexpected development, Russia’s foreign minister met with his Ukrainian counterpart, the highest level of contact between the two nations since Russia moved forces into Crimea nearly a month ago.
The G7 roundtable, which lasted considerably longer than the scheduled one hour, took place in the Dutch prime minister’s residence. U.S. President Barack Obama, who convened the meeting, was seated between British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Harper was seated between French President Francois Hollande and Hermann Van Rumpuy, a Belgian who is president of the European Council.
Ahead of their private talks, British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that the G7 would not join with Russia this year for the annual meeting of the Group of Eight.
“As long as the political environment for the G8 is not there, as at the moment, there is no G8 – neither as a concrete summit nor as a format,” said Merkel, one of Putin’s closest Western allies. Russia had been scheduled to host the summit this summer in Sochi, site of the recent Winter Olympics.
A Western diplomat said the G7 leaders would instead meet in Brussels in June. The choice of location was symbolic, putting the meeting in the headquarters city of the European Union and NATO, two organizations seeking to bolster ties with Ukraine.
White House officials indicated Obama was in step with Merkel. Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said that as long as Putin keeps “flagrantly violating international law,” there’s no reason for the G7 to engage with Russia. At the same time, he suggested that the U.S. and other nations were not prepared to permanently disband the G8.
“The door is open to Russia to de-escalate the situation,” Rhodes said.
AP Photo/Sergei Chirikov, PoolRussian President Vladimir Putin signs bills making Crimea part of Russia in the Kremlin in Moscow.
Hours before world leaders began meeting in The Hague, Russian forces stormed a Ukrainian military base in Crimea, the third such action in as many days. Ukraine’s fledgling government responded by ordering its troops to pull back from the strategically important peninsula.
The G7 leaders were expected to discuss plans for increasing financial assistance to Ukraine’s central government.
Obama was also seeking to win support from European leaders for deeper sanctions on key sectors of the Russian economy, including its energy industry.
But the U.S. leader was expected to face resistance from some European officials. Russia is one of the European Union’s largest trading partners and officials fear that the still economically shaky continent could suffer if Moscow retaliates, particularly by curbing oil and gas supplies.
Jerry Lampen - Pool/Getty ImagesLeft
to right: 'The Beast,' a modified Cadillac DTS that is the current U.S.
presidential limousine is seen outside 'The Catshuis' during a meeting
of the G7 leaders on March 24, 2014 in The Hague, Netherlands.
The U.S. has been appealing to China’s vehement opposition to outside intervention in other nations’ domestic affairs and scored a symbolic diplomatic victory when Beijing abstained a week ago from voting on a United Nations Security Council resolution declaring Crimea’s secession referendum illegal. With Russia vetoing the measure and the 13 other council members voting in favor, China’s abstention served to isolate Moscow internationally.
“I believe ultimately that by working together, China and the United States can help strengthen international law and respect for the sovereignty of nations and establish the kind of rules internationally that allow all peoples to thrive,” Obama said while standing alongside Xi ahead of their hour-long meeting.
In a counterpoint to Obama and his G7 partners, a group of five major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – issued a statement Monday opposing sanctions and urging nations to work through the U.N. instead. The so-called BRICS nations said hostile language, sanctions and force do not “contribute to a sustainable and peaceful solution.”
The scheduled purpose for Obama’s long-planned trip to the Netherlands was the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, an international forum the president created during his first term that focuses on eliminating or securing the world’s nuclear materials. While the nuclear talks were overshadowed by the dispute with Russia, Obama did score a key victory on that front Monday when Japan announced that it was turning over to the U.S. a portion of its weapons-grade plutonium and highly-enriched uranium stockpiles.
Obama arrived in the Netherlands Monday morning after an overnight flight from Washington. He opened his visit with a stop at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, where he admired Rembrandt’s massive 17th-century painting “Night Watch.”
The president’s weeklong trip also includes stops in Brussels, where he’ll meet with European Union leaders, and Rome, where he’ll have an audience with Pope Francis. He’ll close his trip in Saudi Arabia, a visit aimed at soothing tensions with a key Gulf ally.
end quote from:
No comments:
Post a Comment