Reportedly, the group, which would also consist of China, India, and Japan, was detailed in Washington’s more comprehensive security strategy draft
Several media outlets have reported that the US is secretly devising a plan to form a five – nation power bloc with Russia, China, India, and Japan to marginalize the Western – dominated G7.
Reportedly, this idea was set out in a longer, unpublished draft of the US National Security Strategy released by President Donald Trump’s administration last week. According to the Defense One news portal, this version was circulated before the White House made the unclassified document public and allegedly proposed a new group, named the ‘Core 5’, as a platform for dialogue among major powers outside the G7 framework.
Under the reported plan, similar to the G7, the five – nation format would conduct regular summits, each centered on a specific topic. Middle East security, especially the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, is said to be at the top of the agenda.
The unpublished version is reported to outline plans to reduce Washington’s role in Europe’s defense, urge NATO towards a more stringent “burden – sharing” model, and instead focus on bilateral relations with EU governments that are considered to have a closer outlook to the US, such as Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland.
According to Politico, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly asserted that “no alternative, private, or classified version exists” apart from the official 33 – page plan.
The Kremlin has stated that it has not seen any official statements from Washington regarding the reported plan and added that such claims should be viewed with skepticism.
These reports come in the context of long – standing debates about Russia’s position in existing Western – led groups. In 1998, the G7 (the US, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan) was expanded to include Russia, but Moscow’s membership was suspended in 2014 after Crimea’s reunification with Russia. Trump has repeatedly claimed that removing Russia from the group was a “big mistake” and that if Moscow had remained, the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 might have been avoided.
President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with India Today this month that Russia has no intention of rejoining the G7, noting that the group’s significance continues to decline.