G-7 leaders to size up ‘America First’ president
Russia is likely to come up during group’s discussions
Candidate Donald Trump’s frequent refrain on the campaign trail was that other countries treat the USA unfairly.
Very likely, he had multilateral groups such as the Group of Seven in mind.
This weekend, at President Trump’s first summit with the world’s most advanced economies, other members of the G-7 will get the chance to assess what the president’s “America First” foreign policy means for them.
“The main agenda item of the other G-7 members will be sizing up Trump, figuring out who he is and what he stands for,” said Charles Kupchan, a former National Security Council member and a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
There’s a wide range of issues on the agenda. The group will address concerns about Russia’s aggression toward other countries, North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, Syria’s civil war and the threat of terrorism, an even bigger priority in the wake of Monday’s attack on concertgoers in Manchester, England.
Trade is sure to be a high priority as Trump seeks to get what he sees as the best deals for Americans, even if it means shaking up long-standing trade agreements. What’s more, Trump is considering whether to the pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris climate accord to cap carbon emissions — a move many G-7 members are almost certain to condemn.
Trump’s attendance at the G-7 in Taormina, Italy, on the island of Sicily, caps his first foreign trip as president.
Formed in the mid-1970s, the G-7 summit is designed to give global leaders an opportunity to discuss global challenges in more relaxed settings. The discussions among G-7 members — the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom — will probably include potentially difficult discussions about a former member of the group: Russia.
Expelled from what was then the G-8 over its annexation of the Crimean region of Ukraine in 2014, Russia is under fire after accusations of attempted interference in elections in Western countries, including the USA. G-7 members have criticized Russia over its support of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. Russia and Syria are accused of killing anti-Assad rebels in the guise of fighting Islamic State terrorism.
Russia remains an awkward topic for Trump.
Last week, the Justice Department announced the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the FBI’s investigation into possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russians who allegedly sought to influence the 2016 presidential election by hacking Democratic political organizations.
Trump called the investigation a “witch hunt” and sought warmer relations with Russia. This month, he welcomed top diplomats to an Oval Office meeting at which he reportedly disclosed classified information in an attempt to get Moscow to step up its fight against the Islamic State.
“I am not 100% sure that we can say today ... that we have a common position, common opinion, about Russia,” European Council President Donald Tusk said Thursday.