The Group of Seven countries — the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada — held an emergency summit in The Hague on Monday and adopted a declaration strongly condemning "Russia's illegal attempt to annex Crimea in contravention of international law and specific international obligations."
In the Hague Declaration, the seven countries also made it clear that they would not attend a G-8 summit planned in Sochi for June and instead hold a G-7 summit in Brussels.
Russia joined the G-7 in 1998 to form the G-8. The declaration represents the G-7 countries' harshest response to Russia's annexation of Crimea. Russia should heed the voice of the international community as expressed by the declaration and drop expansionist moves against Ukraine.