Defense One on Dec. 9 posted an article claiming there is a “Core 5” grouping of nations—U.S., India, Russia, China, Japan—under consideration in the Trump Administration, as the post-G7 leadership alignment of the world, an idea mooted in earlier versions of the National Security Strategy document of November. White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly says this is not true. Defense One claims it saw an earlier text.
The article, headlined, “’Make Europe Great Again’ and More from a Longer Version of the National Security Strategy.” It purports to outline “the Trump Administration’s plans for shedding old relationships and creating new ones.”
On the C5, it states: “Over the summer, President Trump made headlines when he lamented the expulsion of Russia from the Group of Eight—now the Group of Seven—as a ‘very big mistake.’ He even suggested that he’d like to see China added to form a ‘G9.’