Italy's Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Wednesday it was too early to speak about Russia's rejoining the Group of Seven of the world's most developed nations /Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, the United States, France, and Japan/ into a G8 format, according to TASS.
After a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Germany's Lubeck, Gentiloni said the break-off had been rather dramatic and had been in focus of the world community for a year. So, he said, bridging this gap would take a long time, despite all of Russia's importance in solving international problems. In his words, it would be premature to raise this issue at the next G7 summit in Bavaria's Elmau.
In the spring of 2014, the Group of Eight actually transformed back into the Group of Seven on the backdrop of the Ukrainian developments. The G7 leaders decided not to take part in a G8 summit due in Russia's Sochi in early June and held their summit in Brussels instead. Russia was not invited.