Trump says booting Russi from the G7 was a mistake

President falsely accuses Trudeau over Putin summit snub

- ANDREW FEINBERG

Donald Trump began his time at the G7 summit in Canada by saying Russia should never have been kicked out of the forum an awkward moment for host prime minister Mark Carney.

The US president used a brief media appearance to revive his years-old complaint about Vladimir Putin's removal in the wake of the 2014 invasion of Crimea. Mr Trump - unprompted, and with Mr Carney at his side - complained that the G7 "used to be the G8" until "Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn't want to have Russia in".

"I would say that that was a mistake because I think you wouldn't have a war right now if you had Russia in, and you wouldn't have a war right now if Trump were president four years ago. But it didn't work out that way. But it used to be the G8 and now it's, I guess, what's that? Nine years ago, eight years ago, it switched over," Mr Trump said.

"They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake, even though I wasn't in politics. Then I was very loud about it. It was a mistake in that you spend so much time talking about Russia, he's no longer at the table. So it makes life more complicated, but you wouldn't have had the war," he said.

Mr Trump did not mention that the decision to suspend Moscow's membership was taken collectively by the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Those nations withdrew from a planned 2014 summit, which had been due to be hosted by Russia in Sochi, and suspended Russian membership.