Canada: Six of the Group of Seven leaders were trying as their summit wraps up Tuesday, to show the wealthy nations’ club still has the clout to shape world events despite the early departure of US President Donald Trump.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his counterparts from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan were joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO chief Mark Rutte to discuss Russia’s relentless war on its neighbour at what has conspicuously become just the G6.
Zelenskyy said overnight Russian attacks that authorities said had killed 15 people and injured 150-plus in his country affected “just people” and “our families had a very difficult night, one of the biggest attacks from the very beginning of this war.”
“We need support from allies and I’m here,” Zelenskyy said.
World leaders had gathered in Canada with the specific goal of helping to defuse a series of pressure points, only to be disrupted by a showdown over Iran’s nuclear program that could escalate in dangerous and uncontrollable ways. Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran on Friday, and Iran has hit back with missiles and drones.
Trump departed a day early from the summit in the Canadian Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis. As conflict between Israel and Iran intensified, he declared that Tehran should be evacuated “immediately” – while also expressing optimism about a deal to stop the violence.
Before departing late Monday evening, Trump joined the other leaders in issuing a statement saying Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and calling for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Getting unanimity – even on a short and broadly worded statement – was a modest measure of success for the group.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he sat next to Trump at Monday night’s dinner and “I’ve no doubt, in my mind, the level of agreement there was in relation to the words that were then issued immediately after that.”
Still, Trump’s departure only heightened the drama of a world on the verge of several firestorms – and of a submit now without its most-watched world leader.
Things were getting awkward even before Trump left. After the famous photo from the G7 in 2018 featured Trump and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel displaying less-than-friendly body language, this year’s edition included a dramatic eye-roll by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as French President Emanuel Macron whispered something in her ear during a Monday roundtable.
That, and the very real concerns about the Russia-Ukraine war, little progress on the conflict in Gaza and now Iran-Israel have made things all the more geopolitically tense – especially after Trump imposed severe tariffs on multiple nations that risk a global economic slowdown.
Members of Trump’s trade team remained in Canada, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Kevin Hassett director of the National Economic Council. Bessent sat the table as other world leaders met Tuesday with Zelenskyy, representing the US at the gathering.
On the overnight flight back to Washington, Trump nonetheless brushed off concerns about his decision to skip a series of meetings that would address the war in Ukraine and trade issues.
“We did everything I had to do at the G7,” he said aboard Air Force One. “We had a good G7.”
Trump’s stance on Ukraine puts him fundamentally at odds with the other G7 leaders, who back Ukraine and are clear that Russia is the aggressor in the war. Trump again offered his often-repeated claims on Monday that there would have been no war if G7 members hadn’t expelled Putin from the organization in 2014 for annexing Crimea.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday said the G7 looks “very pale and quite useless” compared to “for example, such formats as the G20.”
With talks on ending the war in Ukraine at an impasse, Britain, Canada and other G7 members were slapping new tariffs on Russia in a bid to get it to the ceasefire negotiating table. Zelenskyy is due to attend the summit Tuesday at Carney’s invitation, along with other leaders, including Rutte and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Trump declined to join in the sanctions on Russia, saying he would wait until Europe did so first.
“When I sanction a country, that costs the US a lot of money, a tremendous amount of money,” he said.
Trump had been scheduled before his departure to meet with Zelenskyy and with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
On the Middle East, German Friedrich Merz told reporters that Germany was planning to draw up a final communique proposal on the Israel-Iran conflict that will stress that “Iran must under no circumstances be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons-capable material.”
Trump also seemed to put a greater priority on addressing his grievances with other nations’ trade policies than on collaboration with G7 allies. The US president has imposed 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as 25% tariffs on autos.
Trump is also charging a 10% tax on imports from most countries, though he could raise rates on July 9, after the 90-day negotiating period set by him would expire.
He announced with Starmer that they had signed a trade framework Monday that was previously announced in May, with Trump saying that British trade was “very well protected’ because ”I like them, that’s why. That’s their ultimate protection.”
But even word of that agreement was somewhat overshadowed when Trump dropped the papers of the newly signed deal on the ground. Starmer stooped to pick them up, explaining Tuesday that he was compelled to ditch diplomatic decorum, since anyone else trying to help risked being shot by the president’s security team.
“There were quite strict rules about who can get close to the president,” Starmer told reporters on Tuesday. “If any of you had stepped forward other than me … I was just deeply conscious that in a situation like that it would not have been good for anybody else to have stepped forward.”
