No consensus reached over inviting Russia to next G7 summit in US, says Macron

No consensus reached over inviting Russia to next G7 summit in US, says Macron
Copyright REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
By Cristina Abellan Matamoros with Reuters
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The French president said G7 leaders did not reach a consensus on whether or not to invite Russia to the next G7.

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There was no consensus among G7 leaders to invite Russia next year to the summit in the United States, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a closing press conference of the G7 summit in Biarritz.

Macron added that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would organise a summit in the coming weeks with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders to obtain results on the crisis in eastern Ukraine.

The French president also said that the US had not signed up to a charter against online hate speech for legal reasons.

"We formalised an agreement for the first time with several Anglo-Saxon and European platforms and with support from nearly all (G7) countries," he said.

"We had a very good discussion with the United States, which for legal reasons was not able to formalise the agreement on this point," Macron said, adding he was hopeful it could be done in the coming weeks.

Macron, who surprised all the other heads of states gathered in Biarritz by holding a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the sidelines of the summit, stressed that Iran should never have nuclear weapons and that the current situation should "not threaten regional stability".

Earlier Macron said the conditions for a meeting between Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, have been created.

READ MORE: Watch again: Trump hails 'tremendous unity' of G7 leaders

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