US President Donald Trump’s plans to expand G7 without including China seems to have rattled the Chinese media which is publishing a flurry of articles slamming this move.
In two separate articles, the state-run Global Times accused India of playing with fire and prophesied that Russia will not join the group without China.
In an article title “India plays with fire spicing up G7 expansion”, the Global Times alleged that Trump’s move to invite India to join G7 is in line with US strategy to prop up India as a counterbalance to China in the Indo-Pacific region.
The article said that India has big power ambitions and it hopes to send a signal to China by endorsing the US’ G7 expansion idea. It went on to allege that India has been active in many of US plans that target China, adding India will align with the US to contain China despite its claims to maintain strategic autonomy.
Referring to New Delhi’s new-found enthusiasm for QUAD, the article opined that India’s attitude toward China has changed during Modi’s second stint as Prime Minister of India. However, it warned India that joining any “anti-China” alliance will not be in its interest.
“If India hastily joins a small circle that perceives China as an imaginary enemy, China-India relations will deteriorate. This is not in India’s interests. The current bilateral relations have already been on a downward trend. The China-India relationship is now in a state that only top leaders can determine courses of progress. After all, the deteriorations of relations cannot simply be reversed through efforts at social levels,” the article noted.
In another article, the Global Times predicted that Russia would decline the US offer to join the expanded G7. The article referred to the statement of Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova in which he had said that the expansion would be meaningless without China’s participation.
“Russia clearly recognizes that without the participation of China, the world’s second-largest economy, any multilateral organization lacks the capability of global governance,” it pointed out.
“That Russia will decline to join the G7 is an inevitable outcome. After all, the G7 is an obsolete mechanism. Nonetheless, that does not mean Russia will form an anti-West alliance with China. For a major power like Russia, when its declining national strength means it is not a decisive power, maintaining independence and declining to join any politically inclined group is the best option,” it added.
