G7 summit begins in shadow of trade friction, climate change, Iran and Brexit
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The G7 summit has begun in the shadow of friction over trade, climate change and Iran likely which are likely to dominate the talks, not to mention protests planned around the Biarritz event this weekend.
“The three-day Group of Seven meeting in the Atlantic seaside resort of Biarritz takes place amid sharp differences over a clutch of global issues that risk further dividing a group of countries already struggling to speak with one voice”, reports Reuters. “Summit host French President Emmanuel Macron wants the heads of Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States to focus on the defence of democracy, gender equality, education and the environment and has invited Asian, African and Latin American leaders to join them for a global push on these issues.
However, in a bleak assessment of relations between once-close allies, European Council President Donald Tusk said it was getting “increasingly” hard to find common ground”, adds the report. Euronews reports “The summit in Biarritz will prove “a difficult test of unity and solidarity” after a year during which leaders of the rich nations have struggled to find a common language, European Council President Donald Tusk said in his opening statement. He added that trade wars among the G7 members would serve to further erode trust among them. Under no condition can the EU agree with a Trump proposal to bring Russia back into the G7 after it was excluded for annexing Crimea and backing an anti-Kyiv rebellion in eastern Ukraine, the EC president said.
On the topic of Brexit, Tusk said the EU was always open to cooperation before now to avoid Brexit and a no-deal scenario, but added the one thing the bloc would not cooperate on was a no-deal. Boris Johnson will not want to go down in history “Mr No Deal”, the leader added.
POLITICO reports about Trump’s declarations and US antagonism. “Far from traveling to France with conciliatory language, senior U.S. officials opened fire on arrival, with one of them accusing Macron of seeking “to fracture the G7.” The official accused Macron of trying to shift focus away from trade to issues such as climate change, which will play well in France and leave the U.S. looking isolated. That accusation was swiftly denied by the French camp Macron insisted he was out to prevent a further escalation of trade conflicts. “Trade tensions are bad for everyone, we have to try to get a de-escalation, to stabilize things to avoid this trade war that is happening everywhere,” the French president said in a video address.
What was already expected to be a difficult summit — with export-dependent Germany lurching toward recession and Britain facing the trauma of a no-deal Brexit — has now moved into openly confrontational territory, says POLITICO.
Meanwhile France 24 reports that French President Emmanuel Macron hosted his US counterpart Donald Trump for a previously unscheduled lunch Saturday ahead of the official opening of the G7 summit in southwest France.
The two leaders sat on a terrace at the ornate Hotel du Palais in the Atlantic resort of Biarritz, the G7 venue, just a day after Trump reiterated his threat of tariffs against French wine in retaliation for a new tax on major US tech companies.
The surprise lunch appeared to be an attempt by Macron to get the summit off on a good footing after a tense build-up in which Trump and EU leaders traded threats of trade war.
Speaking to reporters in fluent English, Macron called Trump “a very special guest”.
“We actually have a lot in common,” Trump said across the table to Macron, adding that they had “been friends for a long time“.
