Washington: US President Donald Trump wants to reformate G- 7, the group of seven economies in the world, to make it a G- 10 or G- 11 in order to include India, Australia, South Korea and Russia.

Trump called the existing formation is an outdated. He revealed the idea of an expanded group after announcing he was scrubbing the G- 7 summit he had planned to host at Camp David in June. German Chancellor Angela Merkel bailed out of the meeting earlier this week after Trump revised his decision on the virtual summit because of Covid- 19 and decided he would host it in person. Other G- 7 countries i.e. the UK, France, Italy, Canada and Japan too appeared lukewarm about the summit given the pandemic. Trump seized the opportunity to suggest a rejig of an organization that began as G- 4 in 1973 and has expanded since, while indicating the new group could meet in September, possibly on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly that meets around that time.

Trump said that I am postponing it (the scheduled G- 7) because I don’t feel that as G- 7 it properly represents what’s going in the world. It is a very outdated group of countries, Trump said media persons on Air Force One on his way back from Florida where he witnessed the historic launch of the first manned mission into space by a private company, Elon Musk’s Space- X. In addition to drafting India, South Korea and Australia, Trump also wants to bring back Russia into the group. Russia was part of the group before it was expelled in 2014, after it invaded Crimea.

Trump does not appear to feel too strongly about the Russian annexation. He also said he had discussed the expansion idea with the leaders of the prospective new entrance, he appeared unsure when he could swing the whole deed, given the uncertainty from the pandemic and the looming electoral season in the US leading upto his own campaign for a second term. May be I will do it after the election; think a good time would be before the election. So it might be a G- 10 or G- 11 and it could be after the election is over.