THE HAGUE, Netherlands – German Chancellor Angela Merkel (AHN'-geh-lah MEHR'-kuhl) says this year's planned Group of Eight summit in Russia is being called off because Russia's aggression toward Ukraine.
She joins British Prime Minister David Cameron, who also says the summit won't take place.
The U.S. and other countries already had suspended preparations for the June summit in Sochi in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine. Putin recently annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and has been assembling Russian forces along Ukraine's borders.
Merkel says there is no Group of Eight either as a concrete summit or as a format as long as the political environment for it is lacking.
Merkel says leaders of the world's seven largest economies will discussed the issue at an emergency meeting, but that concrete decisions aren't expected.