Harper to urge G7 colleagues to go tougher on Putin
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Stephen Harper is expected to urge Russia’s expulsion from the G8 for its aggression in the Crimean Peninsula during an emergency G7 summit today.
The prime minister is the only G7 leader who’s personally witnessed the devastation in Kyiv and spoken face-to-face with Ukraine’s new leadership.
He’ll give a first-hand account of what he saw and heard in Ukraine over the weekend when he meets his G7 colleagues at the Dutch prime minister’s official residence in this pristine European capital.
Harper has called for a “complete reversal” of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and has also warned long and loudly that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted.
The G7 meeting is being held on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit, now woefully overshadowed by the ominous events playing out in eastern Europe amid the worst crisis for the region since the Cold War.
Hours before the summit got underway, Harper met Dutch business leaders. He then held a question-and-answer session with Bernard Wientjes, head of one of the country’s largest business organizations, for a wide-ranging chat that focused on trade and Canada’s free-trade pact with the European Union.
But even in that casual setting, the situation in eastern Europe came up.
Harper told Wientjes he didn’t want to see the Dutch economy adversely affected by tough sanctions against Russia, but added “when you have something like a military occupation” of another country, there are “very serious long-term implications for all of us.”
Wientjes agreed.
At the G7 meeting, Harper is also expected to warn his colleagues that Putin’s actions will spur similar brazen territorial grabs if they go unpunished.
U.S. President Barack Obama, meantime, is facing a test of his influence in the G7 as he attempts to convince his European allies to exert more pressure on Russia.
One foreign policy expert says Harper and Obama will likely present a united front to their European colleagues on Russia. Europe, however, does far more trade with Russia and many European economies are still fragile following the 2008 global economic downturn.
Some G7 members have therefore been more reticent about tougher economic sanctions against Moscow, although German Chancellor Angela Merkel has recently shifted towards the North American stance, reportedly fed up with false assurances Putin gave her about Crimea.
White House officials have said Obama is prepared to launch widespread penalties against key sectors of Russia’s economy, including its energy industry, if Putin dares move into southeastern Ukraine.
Russian troops are already massed on the southeastern border of Ukraine. There are concerns that Russia could use the unrest in the eastern reaches of the country, where there’s a large Russian minority, as a pretext for crossing the border.
Most observers say the G7 leaders will likely emerge from the meeting to announce they’re suspending Russia from the G7 and that the upcoming 40th G8 summit, scheduled to be held in Sochi in June, is off. A Russia-European summit to be held on June 3 in Sochi has already been cancelled.