Sealed with a kiss: Trump says G7 summit achieved great things
Never mind his differences with world leaders on China, trade, Russia, Iran and more. United States President Donald Trump’s takeaway message from the Group of Seven summit in France was “unity”. In fact, “flawless” unity.
During this year’s gathering of leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies, Trump went to great lengths to portray it as something of a lovefest, papering over significant disagreements on major issues.
“If there was any word for this particular meeting of seven very important countries, it was unity,” Trump said at a news conference yesterday closing out the two-day gathering in the French resort of Biarritz.
“We got along great,” he said. “We got along great.”
After Trump disrupted the last two G7 summits with his erratic behaviour, other world leaders seemed determined to play along this year in the interest of keeping any negative drama out of the headlines.
First came the decision by French President Emmanuel Macron, the summit host, to scrap the annual practice of issuing a lengthy joint statement, or communique, at the summit’s conclusion.
Instead, the leaders issued a final “declaration” that began, “The G7 leaders wish to emphasise their great unity and the positive spirit of their debates.”
Macron stressed that everyone had worked “together, hand in hand, with President Trump over these two days”.
For all of the happy talk, though, Trump came under pressure to end his lengthy trade dispute with China that is hurting other nations as well. Differences over Russia didn’t stay hidden, either.
For all the courting of Trump by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump wouldn’t adopt Abe’s position that short-range ballistic missile tests by neighbouring North Korea violate United Nations resolutions.
Trump insisted that he and Abe were on the “same page” — but he appeared to defend the missile tests by North Korea’s Kim Jong Un by saying a lot of other people were testing missiles, too.
“We’re in the world of missiles, folks, whether you like it or not,” he said.
Trump also claimed that “great unity” existed on Iran, but he largely just restated his long-held views about the country, some of them hardly shared. France, Germany and other G7 members are unhappy that Trump withdrew the US from a 2015 international pact that eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for the Iranians agreeing to limit their nuclear programme.
Trump said the biggest conclusion the leaders reached was that Iran “can’t have nuclear weapons”. Far from a breakthrough, that has been the world’s position for decades.
Asked about his efforts to ensure that fighters for Isis (Islamic State) be returned to their home countries across Europe rather than housed by the US, Trump said during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the G7 leaders had “a pretty good meeting”. But then he allowed that they had “not reached a total conclusion”. “It’s unfair for the United States to take them, because they didn’t come from the United States,” he complained.
Macron flicked at the challenges of smoothing over differences by reaching back in history.
Seeking to justify the role of mediator between Iran and the US that Macron is carving out, the French leader quoted one of his predecessors, World War II hero General Charles de Gaulle, who said, “Diplomacy is trying to hold together broken windows.”