German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not attend the G7 summit in Washington due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the German Press Agency reported Saturday, citing government spokesperson, Steffen Seibert.
President Donald Trump said on 20 May that he was aiming for a real G7 summit in Washington in late June as a sign of normalisation after the outbreak of the pandemic.
The summit was originally scheduled for June 10-12 at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland. In March, however, the U.S. government cancelled the arrangement because of the pandemic and scheduled a video conference instead.
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Merkel had initially left open whether she would accept Trump’s invitation to participate in a video conference.
In whatever form this meeting takes place, “whether as a video conference or otherwise, I will definitely fight for multilateralism. “That is very clear, both in the G7 and the G20,’’ the chancellor said on 20 May.
