Rashid A Mughal
THE leaders of G-7 countries-UK, USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, France and Denmark and other EU countries met at the French coastal resort of Biarritz for their two days conference on 24-25 August 2019 with French President Macron playing the host. As was evident from the mood and statements of the leaders-before and after the meeting the atmosphere was more of chaos, confusion and contradiction than that of friendship and unity. Tension and belligerent attitudes displayed at the conference by the participants clearly exposed the fact that the very purpose for which the conference was being held was not achievable-at least in the near future; two dominating reasons being trade wars and Brexit. With Trump at odds with much of free world, the free world seems to be moving on without him. At G-7, leaders seemed to have given up on the prospect of forging a consensus with him on trade, climate and even whether Russian President Putin is friend or foe.
Leaders ditched the tradition of ending the summit with a full-blown communiqué—a joint statement—reflecting common values and a strategy for confronting the most vexing problems. They may have been scarred by the blowup at the end of the G7 last year in Canada when Trump withdrew from the communiqué and, after leaving Canada, insulted the summit’s host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, sending out tweets calling him “very dishonest and weak.” Trump has taken a hard-line position on Iran, pulling out of an agreement reached by the Obama Administration aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear-weapons programme. He has hit the Islamic Republic with rounds of sanctions, part of a pressure campaign that has weakened its economy. After Iran downed a US drone in June, Trump came close to ordering a retaliatory military strike. But over the weekend, French President Emmanuel Macron, acting independently, invited the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to the summit for private talks aimed at defusing tension with the West. Trump didn’t talk to Zarif, but Macron did. The French President remains committed to the nuclear agreement that Trump has spurned, and wants to ensure that Iran respects the deal’s provisions, a French diplomat told The Guardian. At a joint news conference today, Trump and Macron sought to downplay any differences over Iran. “I did it on my own,” Macron said of Zarif’s appearance at the summit, adding that he kept Trump fully briefed on the diplomatic overture to Iran. Trump had also sought to persuade his G-7 counterparts to readmit Russia to the club, from which it was suspended following its annexation in 2014 of Ukraine’s Crimea. The leaders argued about it during a dinner Saturday night. Trump’s view is that Russia’s presence would be helpful in resolving disputes.
“A lot of people say having Russia, which is a power, having them inside the room is better than having them outside the room,” Trump said at the news conference with Macron. That argument fell flat. Even his newest G-7 friend, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was unmoved. “We are opposed because we see no evidence from recent Russian behavior which would warrant readmission to the G-7,” a British official told me. “There has been a pattern of malign behavior from Russia—whether it’s 2016 [U.S.] election interference, the chemical attack in Salisbury [England], the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, or actions supporting the Assad regime [in Syria]—which is at odds with the principles and broader ideas around the G-7.” Next year, Trump may have more sway. The G-7 will take place in the US and Trump, as host, is free to invite guests, including Putin. “Would I invite him? Certainly I would invite him,” Trump told reporters. Trump never seemed all that eager to be in Biarritz. He looked distracted at times. His aides had told reporters that climate change is a “niche” issue that shouldn’t be a particular focus, perhaps the real reason Trump skipped meeting. President Trump shifted his tone on the trade war with China yet again on Monday, expressing confidence that the two sides can reach a deal and calling President Xi Jinping a “great leader” three days after branding him an “enemy.” As he completed an international summit meeting, Trump told reporters that Chinese officials had reached out by telephone and that negotiators would restart trade talks after latest escalation in tariffs and his “order” to American companies to look for ways to pull out of China.
In another surprise, Mr Trump said he was open to meeting with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran within the next few weeks in response to an initiative by President Emmanuel Macron of France. Such a meeting would be the first between American and Iranian leaders since the Tehran hostage crisis of 1979-81. The change in the President’s language about China was especially striking given his hard-line approach over the last few days, and it seemed to reassure markets rattled by the latest escalation of tariffs on Friday. But it was not clear how concrete an opening China really had made. The uncertain prospects for both diplomatic initiatives — not to mention the unusual cordiality among Mr. Trump and the leaders of France, Britain, Canada, Italy, Japan and Germany — was heightened by the President’s dramatic shifts in tone throughout the weekend. It is unclear if the President’s change in approach will prove durable. But Mr. Trump heard an earful during the weekend of discussions about the need to avoid a trade-driven calamity with China. Donald Tusk, European Council President warned of ‘difficult test’ for free world.“ Leaders of the world’s richest and most powerful democracies are increasingly unable to find “common language” and are at risk of getting caught up in “senseless disputes among each other,” he warned before the start of G7 summit. This year’s G-7, therefore, will be remembered for sowing more seeds of dis-agreements and division than promote more unity. The European allies have perhaps forged an independent stand which is not liked by Trump.
— The writer is former DG (Emigration) and consultant ILO, IOM.
