Donald Trump’s ‘G11’ plan heightens speculation over efforts to build new anti-China alliance
- US President says Australia, India, South Korea and Russia should attend G7 summit in move that some observers see as latest effort to contain and isolate Beijing
- White House says China is likely to feature on agenda for summit, which comes at a time of growing tension between China and US
US President Donald Trump plans to invite Australia, India, South Korea and Russia to join an upcoming Group of Seven meeting, in a move that has stoked speculation that he is trying to form a bloc to contain China.
Trump did not say whether he wanted the G7 to become the G11 permanently , but said on Saturday that he wanted to invite the four to attend the summit and said he felt the group was “very outdated”.
White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah said Trump wants the summit to discuss China, and the announcement follows escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing over issues such as the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and Hong Kong.
South Korea and Australia are both long-standing US allies, and the latter has backed calls for an independent inquiry into the source of the coronavirus and also expressed concerns about the planned national security law for Hong Kong.
India, which is at the centre of Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy, also has a range of disagreements with China, including their current border stand-off in Ladakh.
However, Russia has been building an economic and strategic partnership with Beijing and was kicked out of the G8, as it was at the time, following the 2014 invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea – which calls its willingness to join any US-led bloc into question.
