Rubio vows to block ‘antagonistic’ language on Russia at G-7 meet

JEDDAH - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 10 that the US would oppose “antagonistic” language towards Russia when the Group of Seven (G-7) foreign ministers meet in Canada this week.

“Ultimately we can’t sign on to any communique that’s not consistent with our position to bring both sides to the table,” Mr Rubio told reporters as he flew to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for talks with Ukraine.

The position is not about “taking anyone’s side, but because we feel like antagonistic language sometimes makes it harder to bring parties to the table”, Mr Rubio said.

Mr Rubio acknowledged that the other members of the club of wealthy democracies – Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – felt differently.

But he said of the United States: “We’re the only ones right now that seem to be in a position to make talks like that possible.”

President Donald Trump has sharply shifted the position of the United States, which in February

voted with Russia

and against most of its Western allies on a UN resolution that avoided calling on Moscow to withdraw fully from territory it has seized.

Mr Rubio is in Jeddah to sound out a Ukrainian delegation on their

willingness to make concessions

after Mr Trump froze assistance to Kyiv following a confrontational meeting at the White House with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Canada, the current president of the G-7, is hosting the foreign ministers’ meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec from March 12, just as Mr Trump is putting intense pressure on the US neighbour and longstanding ally.

Mr Trump has slapped damaging tariffs on Canada and mocked it as the “51st state”, saying it unfairly relies on the United States.

Mr Rubio said he expected to discuss the tensions with his Canadian counterpart Melanie Joly, but that the United States and Canada still shared “a lot of common interests” and were allies in Nato and Norad, the North American air defence command.

“Our obligation is to try to the extent possible to not allow everything we work on together to be impacted negatively by the things we disagree on right now,” Mr Rubio said. AFP