Vladimir Putin To India Today: 'I Can Hardly Understand Why Countries Of The G7 Call Themselves G7'

2 days ago

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an exclusive interview with India Today, questions the relevance of the G7, stating, "I can hardly understand why countries of the G7 call themselves G7." He highlights that "India's economy in purchasing power ranks third" while noting the "recession in Germany" is there "for the third year in a row." Putin also clarifies his discussion with US envoy Steve Witkoff, saying, "I explained it to Mr. Witkoff why I had stopped visiting G8 meetings in the past," and confirms "no proposal came" for Russia's return. He suggests that the economic struggles in Europe are due to "erroneous policy" and mentions that France is also "on the brink of recession." He reaffirms Russia's focus on BRICS and the SCO.

Transcript

00:00to ask one brief question before we move on to the other part

00:03do you want to go back to being a part of the G8 because that's a lot

00:07there are a lot of reports on that so is that something that Russia is looking at

00:11no that's an interesting answer sir

00:19you're very clear about that well yes the thing is

00:26well I'm not going into detail but I basically stopped going to these

00:38meetings back in the past that's the first thing secondly I can hardly

00:44understand why countries of the G7 call themselves G7 you know in Russia it's

00:54called G light for great big the thing is India's economy in purchasing power

01:00ranks third and what about the UK or other countries in terms of purchasing

01:06parity capacity I think it's 10th or something like that I don't remember

01:12but yes these countries have high-tech economy with a very solid foundation

01:21foundation which is still very much there even though Russia and the world

01:25economy is shrinking yeah in brown

01:30inaudible and the trend is there and it's gonna persist apparently

01:41well let's put it mildly I think this is gonna happen due to the erroneous policy

01:49pursued by the authorities of many of these countries let's have a look at the

01:56recession in Germany it's very much there for the Fed yeah in a row France is in a

02:02very difficult spot right now on the brink of recession and the same applies to

02:06other leading European economies but that said the G7 is still an important

02:13platform they are working on something discussing things making some decisions

02:19good health to them and all the best but you know at a certain point in time I

02:24simply stopped going to these meetings and it was not due to developments in

02:30Ukraine these were due to other events other developments I'm not gonna go into

02:34detail right now and you know we informed our American counterparts on that and

02:41in this meeting during this meeting this meeting in particular with mr.

02:52Vitkov yes we we mentioned this topic that's a very important aspect but you

03:02have visited China well I don't think that is that important but if you think so okay so

03:10coming back to no I just want to put it in perspective before we go ahead so

03:15you're just telling us that in your recent meeting with mr. Vitkov it was

03:19offered to you that you could make it back to G8 and you categorically said that

03:24you are not interested no this topic simply came up you know I explained it to

03:34mr. Vitkov why I had stopped visiting G8 meetings in the past well there was no

03:43proposal no proposal came but we simply broached the subject and I remembered that

03:51point in time when I stopped coming that was back in 2012 after the presidential

03:59elections in the Russian Federation then I came at the same point in time and then I

04:05didn't well it's a platform okay very well let it work further but you know other big

04:12associations are coming up like bricks the SEO and the G20 is still active and we are

04:21participating in of all of these formats we don't have any objections against all of that you know

04:28let's have a look at another aspect what is the current state of affairs in

04:33relation between Russia and the EU or they're not normal so imagine I go to the G8 how am I

04:41supposed to be talking to the members of the G8 if they don't want to talk to me what am I

04:46supposed to do that well we'll probably talk about

Vladimir Putin To India Today: 'I Can Hardly Understand Why Countries Of The G7 Call Themselves G7'

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