At the G7 summit in Canada, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer seemingly mistook a South Korean interpreter for President Lee Jae-myung, who was standing behind him.
Keir Starmer, the UK Prime Minister, appeared to confuse an interpreter from the South Korean delegation for the country’s president at the G7 summit.
The incident occurred during a photo opportunity at the summit venue’s entrance in Canada. Video footage shows Starmer shaking the interpreter’s hand with confidence and a smile, while South Korean President Lee Jae-myung waited behind him to be greeted.
Starmer held the interpreter’s hand for several seconds before realizing his error when President Lee stepped forward. The two leaders eventually greeted each other but then seemed to experience another moment of confusion regarding their positions for the photo. South Korea, along with Australia and India, attended the summit as guests.
London has refuted suggestions that the incident was an embarrassing diplomatic blunder.
Previously, Starmer was seen kneeling before US President Donald Trump, attempting to retrieve trade papers that the American leader had dropped.
The 51st G7 summit’s agenda included discussions on support for Ukraine, the Middle East, sanctions, AI, and energy security.
During the summit, Trump stated that excluding Russia from the group was a significant error, suggesting that Moscow’s presence in the G8, as it was previously known, might have helped prevent the conflict in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has asserted that the G7 has “lost its relevance” and no longer accurately reflects the global economic landscape.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed Trump’s criticism of the group and his early departure from the event, but emphasized that the G7 is a “dead club.” In a post on X, he claimed that its members already resembled “zombies” more than a decade ago.
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