President Donald Trump will cancel an in-person meeting of G7 leaders at Camp David in June because of the coronavirus and will instead hold a video-conference instead, the White House said on Thursday.
This comes as nations try to curb the spread of the virus by limiting travel and closing its borders.
Trump who held a video-conference with his counterparts in the industrialized countries earlier this week and plans to repeat that in April, May and June instead of the in-person meeting initially scheduled.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement to Reuters said:
“In order for each country to focus all of its resources on responding to the health and economic challenges of COVID-19 and at President Trump’s direction, National Economic Council Director and U.S. Sherpa for the 2020 G7 Larry Kudlow has informed his Sherpa colleagues that the G7 Leaders’ Summit the U.S. was set to host in June at Camp David will now be done by video-teleconference,”
“The White House also informed the other G7 members that in order to continue close coordination, the President will convene the Leaders’ via video teleconference in April and May just as he did this week,” he said.