 "US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra attend a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, on Monday. Reuters")
Group of Seven leaders gathered on Monday in Kananaskis aiming to forge a unified stance on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
However, before the summit officially began, US President Donald Trump stirred controversy by declaring that Russia’s removal from the former Group of Eight had been a mistake, according to a Reuters report.
Trump’s open support for Russian President Vladimir Putin presented an early challenge for the G7, a bloc already grappling with internal divisions and Washington’s growing shift away from multilateralism.
Leaders from the US, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the European Union are meeting in the Canadian Rockies through Tuesday.
Standing beside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump said the G8 had erred in expelling Russia in 2014 following its annexation of Crimea.
“This was a big mistake,” Reuters quoted Trump as saying, adding he believed Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Putin not been ejected.
“Putin speaks to me. He doesn’t speak to anybody else … he’s not a happy person about it. I can tell you that he basically doesn’t even speak to the people that threw him out, and I agree with him,” Trump added.
Trump’s remarks have cast uncertainty over how much Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy can accomplish during his meeting with G7 leaders on Tuesday. European countries are hoping to use the occasion to press Trump for stronger sanctions against Moscow.
Zelenskyy has said he intends to raise the issue of new weapons purchases with the US president.
Over the weekend, Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and floated the idea of Russia mediating between Israel and Iran, an idea swiftly dismissed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who argued Moscow had forfeited any mediator role by launching an illegal war in Ukraine.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsA European diplomat noted that Trump’s proposal underscored how central Russia remains in US strategic thinking.
European officials said they plan to use Tuesday’s talks with Zelenskyy and Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, as well as next week’s Nato summit, to push Trump toward a tougher stance on Russia.
“The G7 should have the objective for us to converge again, for Ukraine to get a ceasefire to lead to a robust and lasting peace, and in my view it’s a question of seeing whether President Trump is ready to put forward much tougher sanctions on Russia,” Reuters quoted Macron as saying.
With an escalating Israel-Iran conflict, the summit in Canada is seen as a vital moment to try to restore a semblance of unity among democratic powerhouses.
In another early sign the group may struggle to reach agreement on key issues, a US official told Reuters claiming Trump would not sign a draft statement calling for de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict.
A Canadian official, though, said the conflict would come up in bilateral meetings throughout the day and it was too early to speculate on the outcome of those conversations. A senior European diplomat echoed those comments, saying Trump had yet to make a decision.
Draft documents
Canada has abandoned any effort to adopt a comprehensive communique to avert a repeat of the 2018 summit in Quebec, when Trump instructed the US delegation to withdraw its approval of the final communique after leaving.
Leaders have prepared several draft documents seen by Reuters, including on migration, artificial intelligence, and critical mineral supply chains. None of them have been approved by the United States, however, according to sources briefed on the documents.
Europeans are on the same page on most issues, a European diplomat said. But without Trump, it is unclear if there will be any declarations, the diplomat said.
The first five months of Trump’s second term upended foreign policy on Ukraine, raised anxiety over his closer ties to Russia, and resulted in tariffs on US allies.
Talks on Monday will centre around the economy, advancing trade deals, and China.
Efforts to reach an agreement to lower the G7 price cap on Russian oil, even if Trump decided to opt out, were complicated by a temporary surge in oil prices since Israel launched strikes on Iran on June 12, two diplomatic sources said. Oil prices fell on Monday on reports Iran was seeking a truce.
The escalation between the two regional foes is high on the agenda, with diplomatic sources saying they hope to urge restraint and a return to diplomacy and would encourage Trump to sign a declaration.
“I do think there’s a consensus for de-escalation. Obviously, what we need to do today is to bring that together and to be clear about how it is to be brought about,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters.
With inputs from agencies