“I am sure that Russia will return to the G8,” Ischinger said when addressing the participants of the “Russian session” of the World Economic Forum now under way in Davos, Switzerland.
“I am aware of the position of the German business community. German wants to see Russia as a stable economic partner,” he emphasized.
The G7 group is considered to be a club of the world’s largest economies.
It was known as G8 before the seven industrial nations bowed out of the G8 summit in Russia’s resort city of Sochi at the height of the 2014 Ukrainian crisis and met in Brussels without Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's relations with the West, including the United States and the European Union, deteriorated dramatically following the reunification of Crimea with Russia in March 2014 and the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis later that year.
Washington, Brussels and their allies imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia, accusing Moscow of meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs. Russia responded by banning food imports from the countries which had imposed sanctions against it.
