A meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers set this month for Pittsburgh will take place virtually instead due to coronavirus concerns, the United States said Wednesday. "Out of an abundance of caution, the United States has decided to host the upcoming G7 ministerial virtually by video teleconference instead of gathering in Pittsburgh," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.

The meeting of the seven major industrialized democracies - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - was due to take place on March 24 and 25 in Pittsburgh.

The talks would likely take up crises - including the coronavirus - and also set the agenda for the G7 summit, which is scheduled for June near Washington.

Ortagus said the State Department hoped to hold a future event in Pittsburgh.

A historic steel town that has transformed itself through the tech industry, Pittsburgh lies in the politically crucial state of Pennsylvania and also played host to a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in 2009.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2020

Comments

Comments are closed.