German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has spoken out in favor of bringing Russia back into the G8, Germany's Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland news agency reported Wednesday.
Russia’s membership of the G8 was suspended in 2014 due to its annexation of Crimea and its continuing role in the military conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Speaking in an interview with Redaktionsnetzwerk, Steinmeier claimed that “the key to [Russia's] return to the G8 rests with Moscow.”
Steinmeier named "substantial progress on the situation in eastern Ukraine and on the ceasefire negotiations in Syria” as preconditions for Russia's possible reinstatement, and said that greater Russian peace efforts would see “G7 partners ready to talk.”
Both conflicts proved that it was not "in our interest to exclude Russia from close cooperation with the world’s leading economies,” he said.
