On July 27, a member of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Anton Morozov told Izvestia about the role of the Big Seven (G7) for Russia. On the eve of July 26, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the country opposed the proposal to return Russia to the “Big Seven”.
“I can say that the wider the format is for the Russian Federation, the more comfortable it is from the point of view of promoting its foreign policy priorities,” Morozov said.
According to him, the G8 was, in fact, a platform for building interaction between Russia and Western countries. And as practice has shown, it was often not always possible to agree with them on mutually acceptable approaches.
“We are quite satisfied with what we have now. This is the “big twenty” and various platforms of international organizations, the central of which is the UN. And regional formats such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe. We are building a normal dialogue with partners there. We find understanding there among a larger number of states than those represented in the G7, ”the deputy added.
When the German Foreign Ministry makes such statements, one gets the feeling that “they are trying to shake their hands,” said Morozov. By and large, the participation of Russia in the G8 is more necessary for Western countries than for Russia, the parliamentarian concluded.