German FDP leader: G7 group should invite Putin to next summit

BERLIN – The leader of Germany's pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), a possible partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's next government, has called for Russia to be invited to the next summit of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized countries.

Russia used to be part of the Group of Eight (G8) meetings until it was suspended in 2014 after it annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula following an uprising in Kiev that toppled its pro-Moscow president.

Merkel is trying to form a three-way coalition with the FDP and the Greens after her conservatives lost support in a federal election last month. To secure an agreement, the allies must overcome differences on a range of issues.

"We cannot make all things dependent on the situation in Crimea," FDP leader Christian Lindner said in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse.