Is India part of US plan for ‘Core 5’ club? New report offers shocking details- The Week

India has been proposed as a part of a new grouping involving the US, China, Russia, and Japan, called the “Core 5” or C5.

According to the think tank Defense Onethese Trump administration plans were a part of a longer version of the country’s latest National Security Strategy, which was shortened later on, and released to the public.

This follows Trump’s earlier criticism of former US president Barack Obama and ex-Canadian PM Justin Trudeau over Russia’s removal from the Group of Eight (G8) Summit, making it the G7.

Calling it a “big mistake” at the G7 Summit in June this year, he even mused how it would not be a “bad idea” to include China as well to make it a G9 Summit, as per an Associated Press report.

In that regard, the idea for a “Core 5” group was proposed to create a new major group that would not be limited by the G7’s restrictions—that its member nations must be both wealthy and democratically governed.

Instead, the proposal said that the new group would reportedly have high population (with more than 100 million people) as the common factor.

The longer version had also said that the C5 would meet regularly, like the G7, under specific themes for each summit. The report even highlighted that the first on the C5’s proposed agenda would be security in the Middle East—specifically, resolving Israel-Saudi Arabia ties.

‘No other version exists’

After the report talking about the uncut NSS—which included details of the proposed C5, making Europe great again, and the decline of American hegemony—was published, the White House denied the existence of all other versions of the NSS.

“No alternative, private, or classified version exists,” spokesperson Anna Kelly told the think tank.

“President Trump is transparent and put his signature on one NSS that clearly instructs the US government to execute on his defined principles and priorities,” she added, pointing out that “any other so-called ‘versions’ are leaked by people distant from the President”.