The leading industrial nations should meet as the G7 without Russia, Eckart von Klaeden, foreign policy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats in parliament, said on Sunday, August 31, Deutsche Welle reports.
"The West took Russia in as a member of the G8 grouping of the most important democratic industrial nations even though it fulfilled neither the economic nor the political requirements," von Klaeden said in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
"These nations should meet in the old G7 format as long as Russia is not prepared to find a solution under the framework of the United Nations," he added.
Read alsoReuters: Germany says Russia probably behind cyber attack on BundestagThe parliamentarian's comments came just a day ahead of a European Union summit in Brussels, which was specially called to discuss the crisis in the Caucasus, Russia's military intervention, and its recognition of two separatist Georgian provinces.
Read alsoGermany to increase troops: DWFour members of the Group of Eight -- Britain, France, Germany and Italy -- are part of the EU. Canada, Japan and the United States also belong to the G8.
