Tusk Pledges To Offer G7 To Invite Ukraine To Next Summit Instead Of Reinstating Russia

European Council President Donald Tusk said at the press conference ahead of the G7 summit on Saturday that he strongly opposed the idea of bringing Russia back to the G8 format, pledging to offer the G7 nations to invite Ukraine as a guest to the next summit instead

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2019) European Council President Donald Tusk said at the press conference ahead of the G7 summit on Saturday that he strongly opposed the idea of bringing Russia back to the G8 format, pledging to offer the G7 nations to invite Ukraine as a guest to the next summit instead.

Tusk said that at the G7 summit in Canada in 2018, US President Donald Trump suggested that Russia should be reinstated, saying that what he described as Crimea's annexation "was partially justified" and "we should accept this fact.

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"Under no condition can we agree with this logic," Tusk said.

He added that the "reasons why Russia was disinvited are still valid" and also recalled that "when Russia was invited to the G7 for the first time it was believed that it will pursue the path of the liberal democracy, rule of law and human rights."

"Today I will try to convince my interlocutors that it's better to invite Ukraine � as a guest of course � to the next G7 meeting to hear the opinion of its new president," he concluded.