Key points
- US objections to the statement come after Trump’s recent remarks about the Ukraine war
- Canada had circulated the first draft of the statement to the other six member nations
- Diplomats are continuing to work on the language in the draft: The New York Times
WASHINGTON: The United States is opposing calling Moscow the aggressor in the war with Ukraine in a Group of 7 statement being drafted to mark the third anniversary of the conflict, The New York Times cited three senior officials from countries as saying.
The newspaper reported that the US objections to the statement come after US President Trump earlier this week blamed Ukraine for starting the war.
One senior official from a Group of 7 country stated that Canada had circulated the first draft of the statement to the other six member nations. That version, the official said, used language that retained the pro-Ukraine tone the group of allies adopted after the full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, The New York Times reported.
First draft
The US side went through that first draft this week and removed all references that could be interpreted as being pro-Ukraine, The New York Times cited the official as saying.
The result, the official said, was a neutral draft statement that made no references to Russia as the aggressor in the conflict, nor to Ukraine as the victim of the invasion.
Canada took the lead in writing the draft because it currently holds the presidency of the Group of 7.
READ ALSO: Ukraine War a Waste of US Money and Ukrainian Lives: Trump
Diplomats are continuing to work on the language in the draft, which currently describes “a devastating war that began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” but does not use the words “Russian aggression” or “aggressors,” which have been in Group of 7 statements since 2022, senior German and European officials said.
The New York Times reported that the US objection to labeling Russia as an aggressor was reported earlier by The Financial Times.
