Paris (France) (AFP) – Leading European nations and their G7 allies will seek to narrow differences with Donald Trump at a summit from Monday chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron, but the event is expected to be dominated by the US leader’s presence. Leaders will be looking to restore relations with the United States in the French spa resort of Evian-les-Bains on the shores of Lake Geneva, famed as the home of Evian mineral water.
The G7 summit will be one of the first major international gatherings since the United States and its ally Israel began a war against Iran in late February, upending the Middle East and widening transatlantic tensions. Aside from promoting efforts to end the conflict and re-open the key Strait of Hormuz shipping bottleneck, the leaders will have a packed agenda of potentially explosive issues over three days of talks.
With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in attendance, they will look to find a united front on bringing Russia to the negotiating table to end over four years of war sparked by Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor. “There are no concessions to be made to the Russians, nor is there any reason today to lift sanctions,” said a French presidential official, asking not to be named. However, the other members of the G7 will also be looking to press Trump to accept concessions on global trade imbalances in the face of Washington’s protectionist trade policies. There is also pressure for greater regulation of big tech firms to protect children, despite US reluctance.
Fresh from birthday celebrations, France has been keen to expand the appeal of the Group of Seven leading economies — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and United States — beyond its core membership. Macron has invited the leaders of Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya, and South Korea to the meeting. Sam Altman, the head of artificial intelligence giant OpenAI, Anthropic chief Dario Amodei, and Arthur Mensch of their European rival Mistral AI, will attend a lunch on Wednesday on protecting minors in the digital sphere. Macron on Tuesday also spoke by telephone to Apple chief executive Tim Cook.
In a bid to find regional consensus on Iran, Macron has invited Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, Qatar Emir Tamim ben Hamad Al-Thani, and UAE President Mohammed Ben Zayed to attend a special session on Tuesday. “We need to ensure that we can, with President Trump, define common objectives, starting with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz,” said the French presidential official.
However, China, as so often at G7 meetings, will be conspicuous by its absence. There is growing concern in the West over Beijing’s dominance and control in the market for rare earth minerals used in everyday electronic appliances. Seeking to reach out to Beijing, Macron on Thursday hosted a videoconference with the G7 members, emerging markets, and China, represented by Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, on addressing global economic imbalances.
Trump will arrive at the summit fresh from celebrating his 80th birthday on June 14, where he is to watch a mixed martial arts cage fight on the White House lawn, a commitment that forced France to shift the dates of the G7. French officials want to ensure that there is no repeat of the last G7 in Canada, when Trump left early. They hope the US leader could be tempted to extend his stay in France with a bilateral summit with Macron in Paris or elsewhere.
An immense security operation involving thousands of police and troops is underway, spreading to neighboring Switzerland on the other side of the lake, where the airport in Geneva will receive arrivals and shops have already boarded up their windows. For Macron, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G7, the summit will be one of the final chances to make an impact on the international stage. With less than a year of his final mandate remaining, he wants to press home his cherished idea of increasing European sovereignty.
Ahead of the summit, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) published a poll of citizens from over a dozen European countries showing that confidence in the United States was falling, and only 11 percent viewed the Trump administration as an “ally.” In the face of US “criticism and aggressive behavior,” European leaders have a window “to go further and faster” in building common systems of security, said ECFR senior policy fellow Pawel Zerka.
© 2024 AFP
