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 pandemic, the White House said on Tuesday.
Trump, who is head of the G7 this year, had to cancel the group’s annual summit, which he had planned to hold at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, in June.
The Group of Seven nations include the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany, and all seven of them have been hit hard by the virus.
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,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere.
The Thursday session is a followup to their 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)
