With a tweet for this year’s G7 summit, the US President is causing discussions – because despite the current situation in the Corona crisis, the meeting should not take place virtually.
US President Donald Trump is considering holding this year’s G7 summit as a real meeting and not via video. Trump wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that as the country recovered from the corona crisis, he is considering organizing the gathering at the originally scheduled date or “similar date” at Camp David, the U.S. President’s country home. This would be a great signal of normalization, he said. The other countries have already started their comeback, Trump continued. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) was extremely reluctant to comment on the surprising push from the White House.
Now that our country is “Transitioning back to Greatness”, I am considering rescheduling the G-7, on the same or similar date, in Washington, D.C., at the legendary Camp David. The other members are also beginning their COMEBACK. It would be a great sign to all – normalization!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2020
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In March, the US government canceled the summit of the seven leading economies in the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic, which was scheduled for mid-June, and instead scheduled a video conference. The summit was scheduled to take place at Camp David from June 10th to 12th. What exactly will come of the meeting is open after Trump’s tweet.
Chancellor Merkel still left her participation open
The US President will host the G7 summit in 2020 and was thus able to choose the location. In addition to the USA, the “Group of Seven” includes Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada and Japan.
Merkel left open whether she would accept Trump’s invitation to a real G7 meeting in a few weeks. In whatever form this meeting takes place, “whether as a video conference or otherwise, I will definitely fight for multilateralism. That is very clear. Both with G7 and G20,” said Merkel on Wednesday in Berlin.
When asked if she would travel to the United States at Trump’s invitation to a G7 meeting, Merkel replied: “I wanted to say what I said. We’ll just wait and see. I chose my words wisely . “
The crisis in the United States is far from over
According to the White House, Trump also raised the issue on a phone call to French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. Trump has made it clear that he is looking forward to an early G7 meeting, it said.
Trump has been trying to spray confidence in the corona pandemic for weeks, and has long held out the prospect of the country’s rapid recovery from the crisis. The United States is hard hit by the corona pandemic – the worst in absolute terms worldwide, with more than 1.5 million known infections and more than 92,000 deaths.
As a result of the rapid spread of the pandemic, most US states had imposed strict exit restrictions. Public life came to a standstill in this way and plunged the country’s economy into a serious crisis. In the meantime, the US has initiated various easing of the corona restrictions. According to experts, the crisis in the United States is by no means over. European countries, too, are still far from completely returning to normal, despite the initial easing.
A summit would be a huge logistical feat
So far, there are also strict travel restrictions between the USA and Europe, which raises additional questions about the feasibility of an early personal summit. Given the serious impact of the pandemic in several European countries, Trump had imposed an entry ban for foreigners from the Schengen area, Great Britain and Ireland in mid-March. The European Union, for its part, also introduced entry restrictions for citizens of most non-EU countries in mid-March to slow the spread of the corona virus.
In any case, summits like the G7 are a huge logistical feat. It is questionable whether it would be possible in such a short time to organize a personal gathering of large delegations from the G7 countries.
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