G7 confronts new reality after US Prez Trump spoils hopes for unity

G7 gatherings have served to bring leaders together to coordinate their response to the pressing issues of the day, but the summits are getting trickier after Trump changed the rulebook on diplomacy

By Ellen Milligan, Jorge Valero and Eric Martin 

  On Sunday evening, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney took to a comfy sofa to chew the fat over glasses of wine with European Group of Seven leaders at their hotel bar in Kananaskis, the Rocky Mountain resort hosting this year’s summit. 

The unplanned gathering started when UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer bumped into German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with Carney, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron joining. The topics were meaty — including a discussion of escalating tensions in the Middle East. But the atmosphere was relaxed, with one G-7 official describing it as a drink among friends. US President Donald Trump had yet to arrive.

 

 

For Carney, the summit was an exercise in trying to keep the annual gathering of the most powerful western leaders relevant. Ultimately, it exposed how fractured the forum has become — with Trump forging a lone path and leaving his counterparts from the other six nations to wonder what his next move will be.

 

With Trump in office, “the ability of the G-7 to unite and make common purpose on an array of global challenges has been pretty significantly undermined,” said Matthew Goodman, who served as an aide at such summits for former US President Barack Obama. “Particularly in current circumstances, it’s not going to solve all the world’s problems.”

 

G-7 gatherings have traditionally served to bring leaders together to coordinate their response to the pressing issues of the day, from climate change to economic crises and conflicts. But the summits are getting trickier after Trump changed the rulebook on diplomacy, leaving the other leaders walking on eggshells. 

 

A US official said the fact the summit ended with six statements on specific topics, rather than a single joint communique, was a sign of unity rather than disunity. Trump appreciated the productive conversations held in Canada and the support he receives from fellow G-7 leaders, the official said. 

 

The Canadian organisers took great pains to keep the summit safe from marauding grizzly bears, erecting eight-foot fences at the venue in Kananaskis, Alberta. But in the end, they couldn’t keep the gathering’s chief draw in. Trump departed a day early, saying he had bigger things to attend to — such as the crisis in the Middle East. 

 

The differences between Trump and his fellow leaders were evident on the big issues. A statement on the situation in the Middle East failed to call for an immediate end to the conflict between Israel and Iran after being watered down because of US objections to an earlier draft seeking restraint from both sides. That draft was a dead end in Trump’s eyes, one US official said.

 

And over a dinner featuring Acadian sturgeon caviar and wagyu beef on Monday evening, European leaders did little to move Trump toward tougher sanctions on Russia. The president said sanctions would cost the US “a lot of money.” 

 

On arrival at the summit, Trump quickly made it clear he thought the G-7 could be improved — with the inclusion of non-democracies like Russia and possibly China. Several hours later, he surprised leaders with his decision to leave. 

 

“I’m very grateful for the president’s presence and I fully understand why he must return,” Carney said. But then Macron suggested Trump was returning to Washington because he had offered to start talks on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. That set Trump off, and he posted on his Truth Social platform that “publicity seeking” Macron was “Wrong!” 

 

“He has no idea why I am now on my way to Washington, but it certainly has nothing to do with a Cease Fire,” Trump posted. He reiterated the barb to reporters minutes after his plane left Calgary. “Emmanuel,” Trump said. “Nice guy but he doesn’t get it right too often.”

 

The French president — who had made a provocative stopover in Greenland en route to Canada to highlight its status as European, not American, territory — later told reporters Trump had changed his mind to put pressure on Iran.

 

Even Starmer, who exchanged warm words with Trump on Monday and knew in advance of his early departure, appeared to have been kept in the dark about the president’s thinking. On Tuesday morning, the premier told reporters he’d sat next to Trump at dinner and was left with “no doubt” that the president wanted to stay out of the conflict between Israel and Iran. 

 

Just a couple of hours later, Trump appeared to be spoiling for a fight with Iran, posting on social media that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran” and describing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as an “easy target” who was safe “for now.”

 

In Kananaskis, Starmer had literally cleared up Trump’s mess, stooping to pick up a sheaf of papers the president had accidentally dropped from a document implementing a trade pact reached last month. It produced one of the summit’s lasting images.

 

At least Starmer got something out of Trump, even if their agreement delayed the implementation of a promised US cut to tariffs on imports of British steel. Others weren’t so lucky.

 

The gathering in Canada was a shadow trade summit as leaders lined up to haggle with the president on tariffs. The results were decidedly mixed.

 

Trump agreed with Carney to work toward some type of trade deal within 30 days. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba failed to reach an agreement with the president, who said prospects of one were “tough.” There was also little progress in talks with the European Union, whose delegation included trade chief Maros Sefcovic. “I don’t feel that they’re offering a fair deal yet,” Trump told reporters.

 

The president’s early departure scuttled any chance to meet with other invited leaders, such as Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, India’s Narendra Modi and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 

 

Carney, for his part, had sought to avoid conflict by scrapping the summit communique that’s intended to show commonness of purpose on the most important matters of the day.

 

In the past, the G-7 successfully coordinated actions among governments during the financial crisis in 2008, calming the markets with an effort to provide banks with liquidity. The club also worked together on tackling the Covid pandemic and the response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

 

In 2019, when tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme again loomed large, Macron surprised counterparts by flying in Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for talks — but only after first running it past Trump, who didn’t object but also didn’t join the meeting.  

 

On Tuesday, the US president’s counterparts forged on with their discussions without him, issuing a series of agreed-upon statements on issues including artificial intelligence, critical minerals, wildfires and immigration. 

 

The proceedings gave leaders “a sense of what it’s going to be like to work among themselves to find common ground and areas they can move forward without US leadership,” said Doug Rediker, who used to represent the US at the International Monetary Fund, and is now managing partner of International Capital Strategies. “Clearly, they’re going to have to figure out how to operate on a different basis.”