At a G7 lunch in Germany on Sunday, World leaders mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tough-man image joking about whether they should strip down to shirtsleeves — or even less.
‘Jackets on? Jackets off? Do we take our coats off?’ British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked as he sat down at the table in Bavaria’s picturesque Elmau Castle, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz was hosting the summit of seven powerful democracies.
The leaders — from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union — pondered the dilemma.
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Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, suggested they wait for the official picture before disrobing but then Johnson quipped ‘We have to show that we’re tougher than Putin’ and the joke kept rolling.
‘We’re going to get the bare-chested horseback riding display,’ Trudeau said, referring to Putin’s infamous 2009 photo-op of himself riding shirtless on a horse.
‘Horseback riding is the best,’ European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, without apparently weighing in on the clothing issue itself.
Johnson interjected: ‘We’ve got to show them our pecs.’
The leaders posed — jackets on — for photos before reporters were hustled out of the room, leaving the sartorial debate behind closed doors.
In a related development, the President of China, Xi Jinping has assured his ally and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that Beijing would keep supporting Moscow on ‘sovereignty and security’, according to state media.
According to the report, China is ‘willing to continue to offer mutual support (to Russia) on issues relating o core interests and major concerns such as sovereignty and security’.
Africa Today News, New York reports that this was the second reported call between the two leaders since Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24.