Russia believes the Group of Twenty (G20), composed of major advanced and emerging economies, is more influential than the Group of Eight (G8) which involves world leading industrial nations, the Kremlin said Monday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague have decided that it would be inappropriate for British ministers to attend the Sochi Paralympics in current circumstances in Ukraine, a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement Sunday.
Russia and the West seriously differed over the approach to the Syrian conflict, but the international community's ultimate aim was the same, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Tuesday welcomed the understandings reached on Syria by leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations in a communique on the same day.
Given the economic difficulties facing all the members of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, their influence has been "considerably" diminished as a result, says Irish political observer Brendan Halligan.
The G8 foreign ministers issued a joint statement on Thursday following their meeting in London, expressing commitments on preventing and ending global and regional conflicts.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that his Wednesday announcement of the plan to hold an in-or-out referendum on Britain's EU membership is not about "turning our backs on Europe."