No Return to a G8 with Russia. Ever.

As the G7 leaders prepare to gather at the Elmau mountain retreat on Sunday, Russia’s absence is fueling debate. Eckhard Cordes, chairman of the German business association representing companies with significant investments in Russia, recently said that barring Russia from the summit was a missed opportunity: ​“A G7 meeting with Russia could contribute to solving crises.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier quickly made it clear that current Russian actions in Ukraine preclude Russia from joining the Elmau summit. But they left the door wide open for Russia to come back once it is on better behavior: ​“I am convinced that we can improve the conditions for global problem solving if Russia returned to the G8,” Steinmeier said recently.

This, however, is an illusion. Reverting to a G8 format with Russia would do nothing to improve the conditions for addressing global problems. The only thing it would do is turn the G8 into the format to deal with the problems Russia itself is causing in Europe´s neighborhood. But the G8 was never intended as a format to exclusively deal with the problem of Russia (and from the OSCE to the Security Council there are many fora to do that). As an extension of the G7 it was meant to tackle global issues from financial stability, development policy, health to climate. And on these a format with Russia but without the other big players is pointless.

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