Six of the G7 leaders were trying on the final day of their summit yesterday to show that the wealthy nations’ club still has the clout to shape world events, despite the early departure of US President Donald Trump.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his counterparts from the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Japan were to be joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss Russia’s relentless war on its neighbor.
World leaders had gathered in Canada with the specific goal of helping to defuse a series of pressure points, only to be disrupted by a showdown over Iran’s nuclear program that could escalate in dangerous and uncontrollable ways. Israel launched an aerial bombardment campaign against Iran on Friday, and Iran has hit back with missiles and drones.
Photo: AFP
Trump left the summit in the Canadian Rocky Mountain resort of Kananaskis a day early late on Monday, saying: “I have to be back, very important.”
Before leaving, Trump joined the other leaders in issuing a statement saying Iran “can never have a nuclear weapon” and calling for a “de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Getting unanimity — even on a short and broadly worded statement — was a modest measure of success for the group.
Meanwhile, Trump’s stance on Ukraine put him fundamentally at odds with the other G7 leaders, who back Ukraine and are clear that Russia is the aggressor in the war.
Trump on Monday suggested there would have been no war if G7 members had not expelled Russian President Vladmir Putin from the organization in 2014 for annexing Crimea.
Trump demurred when asked if he supported Russia, saying: “I only care about saving lives.”
With talks on ending the war at an impasse, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK and other G7 members were slapping new tariffs on Russia in a bid to get it to the ceasefire negotiating table.
Zelenskiy was due to attend yesterday’s summit at Carney’s invitation, along with other leaders including Rutte and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Trump declined to join in the sanctions on Russia, saying he would wait until Europe did so first.
Trump added that the EU had yet to offer a “fair deal” on trade, as Washington negotiates tariff agreements with friends and foes alike.
“We’re talking, but I don’t feel that they’re offering a fair deal yet,” Trump said of the EU, speaking to reporters on board Air Force One to Washington. “And we’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they will pay.”
Additional reporting by AFP
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS