US President Donald Trump hesitated for many days and it was not until recently that he decided to attend this most important annual event of the G7. During his previous term as US President, Mr. Trump attended the G7 summit three times, one of which was hosted by Canada (2018). But Canada at that time was different from current Canada to Mr. Trump. Immediately after returning to power in the US, Mr. Trump expressed his desire to annex Canada into US territory and considered Canada the 51st state of the US to impose high tariffs on Canada.
Mr. Trump's policy views and statements about Canada are the most decisive factor in helping the Canadian Liberal Party defeat new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to win the recent before-term parliamentary election in Canada. Mr. Carney has a policy of responding to Mr. Trump with a tough and determined approach, not to be defeated, and not to follow Mr. Trump.
Of the 7 members of the G7, 4 will attend for the first time this year: Mr. Carney himself, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Basically, the contents on the agenda of this year's conference are nothing new compared to previous years, except for the recent air war between Israel and Iran. There are still persistent political and security issues in the world and the role of the G7. It is still a matter of recovering world economic growth and protecting the Earth's climate. There are still issues related to digital transformation and artificial intelligence. Still talking about ensuring energy security...
It is not until this year's G7 conference in Canada that we have seen the role, influence and position of this forum in the world continue to decline significantly. This large forum continues to be heavy in name but light in substance. The biggest challenge for the G7 at this year's summit is responding to Trump. Not only Mr. Carney but also a few other leaders of this group did not hide the view of not being in the same boat as Mr. Trump. For example, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Greenland before going to Canada to publicly support the island in the confrontation with Mr. Trump. As for Canada, Mr. Trump has publicly expressed his desire to buy or occupy Greenland.
The next big challenge for the G7 at this year's summit is whether to reach a consensus and make any new recommendations or not regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict, between Israel and Hamas as well as between Israel and Iran.
The next big challenge is how the group will handle the trade protectionist tariff war that Trump has declared with US economic and trade partners around the world.
The G7 is a big forum but the above challenges are all too big. Therefore, it will be an extremely rare miracle in the history of the G7 if the group overcomes these challenges at this year's conference.
