Fifty years ago, it seemed like such a good idea. At the initiative of the West German and French leaders, the six leading industrialized democracies convened their first regular meeting to manage a troubled world — problems included the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the oil shocks and stagflation. They later became the Group of Seven, then briefly 8, then 7 again. But as this club concludes its latest summit in the Canadian Rockies by defining success merely as avoiding a rage quit by the American guest, one wonders: What’s the point anymore?
The world is on fire from eastern Europe to the Middle East and beyond, and the G-7 leaders are at odds over how to analyze, let alone solve, any of these conflicts. French President Emmanuel Macron and others want Israel to desist from further escalation against Iran. US President Donald Trump may not have wanted Israel to attack Iran while his own envoy was trying to negotiate a deal with Tehran, but now that the war is underway he seems fine with Israel finishing the job.
Macron also intends to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state. By contrast, Trump’s ambassador to Israel told Bloomberg that the US no longer believes in a two-state solution, not even in the long term.
The discord over the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has even deeper roots. Trump promised to end it in a single day but, five months into his second term, has all but walked away from even trying. The blame belongs to Russian President Vladimir Putin (who once was the 8th summiteer in the group, until he was kicked out for annexing parts of Ukraine in 2014). Putin shows no interest in good-faith negotiations and adroitly strings Trump along — the two just had another call, after which Trump even suggested (to Macron’s horror) that Putin might mediate the Israel-Iran showdown.
As Trump wavers in supporting Ukraine, the Europeans understand that they need to step up; they are urging much harsher sanctions against Russia. In that demand, they have backers in the US Congress, even among Republicans. But Trump, so far, has other instincts.
That’s hardly a secret to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who does not represent a G-7 nation but is again on the guest list, along with leaders from the Global South such as South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa. Both men were recently humiliated by Trump in reality-TV-inspired ambushes at the White House — Trump in effect accused his South African guest of presiding over genocide against White Afrikaners.
The host, Canada’s Mark Carney, survived his own visit to the White House relatively unscathed but owes his election largely to his promise to Canadians to resist one of Trump’s most outlandish taunts: his repeated threat to annex Canada as America’s 51st state....
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Bloomberg Opinion
