US Secretary of State Mike Pomeo considers it possible to resume the GXNUMX format with the participation of Russia without the mandatory return of Crimea to Ukraine, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
This is stated in report from the American news agency Associated Press.
“As the United States and Russia finalize plans for the summit, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said President Donald Trump views Moscow’s return to the international community as inevitable and a “compromise,” which could allow it to return to the (current – ed.) Bolshoi club “seven” industrialized democracies without returning Crimea to Ukraine,” the publication notes.
Pompeo made this statement on Wednesday during a hearing in the US Senate Appropriations Committee just as White House National Security Adviser John Bolton was meeting with Russian President Putin in Moscow.
As the US Secretary of State explained, he sees the possibility of resuming the G8 format as one of the compromises that can be offered to Russia. But at the same time, he stressed that the United States “will continue to consider Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea in 2014 unacceptable,” which was the reason for its exclusion from the G8.
“The President is deeply convinced that Russia’s participation in important geostrategic negotiations is inevitable,” Pompeo said in response to a question about Trump’s statements regarding the resumption of the G8 format.
At the same time, Pompeo emphasized that current US relations with Russia remain at a low level and repeated the assertion that the Trump administration is more brutal towards the Russian Federation than many previous White House administrations