G7 abandons joint Ukraine statement as wars head agenda
David Ljunggren and John Irish and Andreas Rinke |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will leave the G7 summit with new aid from host Canada for its war against invader Russia but without a joint statement of support from members or a chance to meet with US President Donald Trump.
The G7 wealthy nations struggled to find unity over the conflict in Ukraine after Trump expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and left a day early to address the Israel-Iran conflict from Washington.
Canada dropped plans for the G7 to issue a strong statement on the war in Ukraine after resistance from the United States, a Canadian official told reporters.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Ottawa would provide C$US2 billion ($1.47 billion) in new military assistance for Kyiv as well as impose new financial sanctions.
Carney said when G7 leaders met for dinner in the Rocky Mountain resort area of Kananaskis on Monday before Trump left, they stressed the importance of using “maximum pressure against Russia” to force it to start serious peace talks.
Zelenskiy said he had told the G7 leaders that “diplomacy is now in a state of crisis” and said they need to continue calling on Trump “to use his real influence” to force an end to the war.
“Even if the American President is not putting enough pressure on Russia right now, the truth is that America still has the broadest global interests and the largest number of allies. All of them will need strong protection,” he said in a post on his Telegram account.
Although Canada is one of Ukraine’s most vocal defenders, its ability to help Kyiv is far outweighed by the US, the largest arms supplier. Zelenskiy had said he hoped to talk to Trump about acquiring more weapons.
When the summit ends, Carney plans to issue a chair statement calling for more pressure on Russia through sanctions and saying the G7 backs US-led peace efforts, two G7 sources said.
Canada holds the rotating G7 presidency this year. Other leaders do not need to sign off on G7 chair statements.
A European official said leaders had stressed to Trump their plans to be hard on Russia and Trump seemed impressed, though he does not like sanctions in principle.
Three European diplomats said they had heard signals from Trump that he wanted to raise pressure on Putin and consider a US Senate bill drafted by Senator Lindsey Graham, but that he had not committed to anything.
“I am returning to Germany with cautious optimism that decisions will also be made in America in the coming days to impose further sanctions against Russia,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said.
G7 leaders agreed on six statements, about migrant smuggling, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, wildfires, transnational repression and quantum computing.
Trump said on Monday he needed to be back in Washington as soon as possible due to the situation in the Middle East, where escalating attacks between Iran and Israel have raised risks of a broader regional conflict.
He later said his early departure from the summit had “nothing to do with” working on a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, however, denying comments by French President Emmanuel Macron, who had said the US president leaving could be a sign of a potential deal.
A White House official on Tuesday said Trump explained that he returned to the US because it is better to hold high-level National Security Council meetings in person, rather than over the phone.
Trump did agree to a group statement published on Monday calling for a resolution of the Israel-Iran conflict.
The statement said Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror and that Israel has the right to defend itself.
Reuters
