The Russian Foreign Ministry described on Thursday a decision by seven Western partners in the Group of Eight leading nations not to invite Moscow to a ministerial meeting in Canada as "incorrect" and said it reflected old stereotypes.
This weekend, Iqaluit, Canada, will host a meeting of seven Western finance ministers from G8 states excluding Russia.
In previous years, Russia, although not a full member of the ministerial format of meetings, attended part of their sessions. The Western partners explained their decision not to invite Russia to Canada saying the meeting was intended as an informal exchange of opinions in the G7 format.
"Russia has repeatedly voiced its opinion, including to Canada's G8 presidency, over the lack of Russia's full-format participation in such meetings. We think that is an incorrect approach that reflects old political stereotypes," Andrei Nesterenko said.
However, the diplomat played down the role of what he described as narrow-format events against the background of the G20, "a major international forum for discussions of financial and economic issues."
"It is no longer possible to make strategic decisions on the world's financial and economic architecture without leading players, such as the BRIC countries, including Russia and leading developing countries," Nesterenko said.
The first BRIC summit brought together the world's four leading emerging market economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg last June. The four nations' finance ministers also met in London in September 2009 to consider an exit strategy from the global economic crisis.
In January, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said Russia was not offended by the lack of an invitation to the Canadian event.
"This is not a gauntlet flung down to Russia...This is due to the change of the G8 format," Pankin said.
G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia. The global economic crisis has prompted the countries' leaders to expand the G8 format and turn it into the group of G20 industrialized and major developing economies to fight effectively the effects of the global financial meltdown.
Russia has repeatedly said that emerging economies should play a bigger role in international finances to avoid the repeat of the crisis. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently proposed using the Russian ruble as a new regional reserve currency to reduce international dependence on the U.S. dollar.
MOSCOW, February 4 (RIA Novosti)
