Trump to convene G7 leaders in video call to discuss pandemic

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a video teleconference with G7 leaders on Thursday to coordinate national responses to the coronavirus outbreak, the White House said on Tuesday.

Trump, who is head of the G7 this year, had planned to hold this year’s summit at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, in June, but moved it to a virtual setting due to the virus.

The Group of Seven nations consists of the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany, and all seven of them have been hit hard by the virus.

Trump spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday about the G7 teleconference and “efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic and reopen world economies,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was released from a London hospital this week after treatment for the virus, which left him in the intensive care unit for several days.

“Working together, the G7 is taking a whole-of-society approach to tackle the crisis across multiple areas, including health, finance, humanitarian assistance, and science and technology,” Deere said.

The Thursday session is a follow-up to a March 16 video conference, the first time G7 leaders had met in that format, to go over efforts to defeat the coronavirus.

In addition to the meeting this week, another session is expected in May to lay the groundwork for the June video conference.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; additional reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis and Raju Gopalakrishnan)