China strongly condemned United States President Donald Trump’s invitation to India, Russia, Australia, and South Korea for the G7 summit. China said that any attempts to make a close-knitted circle against Beijing will be "doomed to fail and become unpopular," as per media reports.
G7 is the group of top seven developed economies. These include the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Canada. Heads of States of these countries convene an annual meeting to discuss issues related to global governance, including climate change, security, and the economy.
Trump decided to push the date of the meeting to September and showed his interest in widening the bloc to G10 or G11. This will include India and three other nations to the grouping of the world's top economies.
This irked China and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told media that "China believes all international organizations and conferences should be conducive to mutual trust between countries to upholding multilateralism, promoting world peace and development."
"We believe this is the role of the overwhelming majority of the countries in the world. Any attempts to seek a small circle against China is doomed to fail and is unpopular," he said.
Trump’s exclusion of China comes at a time when the US abrogated special status given to Hong Kong and the withdrawal of its contribution to the World Health Organization.
Trump is also aggressively pushing for decoupling China from global supply chains which could hurt the world's second-largest economy in the long run.
Cold war between US and China
The cold war is seething between the US and China, with Trump accusing Beijing of not divulging timely information about the disease and demanding a probe into the origins of the virus.
However, China has rejected all US allegations of a cover-up regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.
During the summit, the G7 president invites heads of states of one or two countries to attend the meeting as a special invitee.
Last year, French President Emanuel Macron had invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 Summit. Prime Minister Modi attended the G7 meeting in the French town of Biarritz in August last.
This time, Trump's cozying with Russia by inviting it to the summit is a matter of concern for Beijing. Beijing grew closer to Russia after it was expelled from the summit that earlier used to be called as G8 in 2014.
Reports from Russia indicated that Moscow has shown its interest in accepting the invitation to attend the G7 meet.
The UK and Canada, however, have opposed Russia's return to the G7, deepening a rift over President Trump's wish for the country to re-join, the BBC reported.
On Sunday, Trump told Putin of his plans to invite him to the G7 summit.
The White House said making "progress toward convening the G7" with Russia was among the topics the leaders discussed in a phone call, according to reports.