G-7 overlooks Trump’s brash insults to find agreement on Russia, China

LA MALBAIE, Canada – Top diplomats from the Group of Seven industrialized democracies set aside a growing list of disagreements with President Donald Trump over his tariffs and brash territorial claims and agreed to a joint statement on shared priorities, including pressuring Russia into a ceasefire, ending the war in Gaza and curbing China’s military buildup.

The display of unity in this remote Canadian tourist town papered over Trump’s dismissiveness of Canada as an independent country, and his threat to impose 200% tariffs on European wine and liquor as the two-day meeting carried on between the United States and its traditionally closest allies.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, fresh off striking an agreement with Ukrainian counterparts on a temporary ceasefire negotiated in Saudi Arabia, risked becoming the skunk at the garden party in Canada, where G-7 diplomats were furious over Trump’s repeated taunts to make Canada “the 51st state,” annex Greenland and tax billions of dollars on goods imported from their countries in an “America First” economic campaign that has put a major dent in the global economy.

But a push by Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly to prevent the disagreements from blocking a unified message carried the day despite unusually combative rhetoric among a bloc of countries that had been best known for working in lockstep in recent years amid a deterioration of global governance.

“What Secretary Rubio and I have been able to agree on was: We won’t let things that we don’t agree on stop us to agree on other things,” Joly told reporters Friday.

The joint statement “welcomed” the Trump administration’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine and called on Russia to agree to it or face consequences, “including further sanctions, caps on oil prices, as well as additional support for Ukraine.” At the urging of the United States, the statement also expressed concern about “China’s military buildup and the continued, rapid increase in China’s nuclear weapons arsenal,” and called on Beijing to engage in arms control talks.

But the atmosphere at Rubio’s first appearance at a G-7 ministerial was anything but convivial. Joly criticized the blithe attitude that visiting diplomats took to Trump’s rhetoric about annexation.

“Many of my colleagues coming here thought that this issue was still a joke, and that this had to be taken in a humorous way. But I said to them, ‘This is not a joke,’ ” Joly said.

“Canadians are anxious. Canadians are proud people, and you are here in a sovereign country, and so therefore, we don’t expect this to be even discussed or clearly don’t laugh at that,” she added.

As host of top diplomats from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union, Canada prepared trust-building activities including roasting marshmallows around an open fire, which Rubio skipped to catch up on sleep from his long flight from Saudi Arabia. The Canadians also planned to go snowshoeing with the ministers along the banks of the St. Lawrence River, though that event was swapped out for a session of making maple syrup taffy that Rubio also did not attend.

In comments from Washington, Trump dismayed Rubio’s Canadian hosts when he reiterated his support for making Canada the 51st U.S. state and suggesting America’s northern neighbor would lose badly in a trade war.

“We don’t need anything they have,” Trump said. He paired those remarks with mocking appreciation for Canada’s national anthem, saying they wouldn’t have to give that up if they became part of the United States.

“ ‘O Canada,’ the national anthem. I love it. I think it’s great. Keep it, but it will be for the state, one of our greatest states, maybe our greatest state,” Trump said.

Canada found solidarity among European countries, including German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who posed for photos with the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, for social media posts that carried the message “We’ve got your back Melanie Joly.”

The two women coordinated their outfits to display red and white, the colors of Canada’s flag.

Rubio downplayed the antipathy caused by Trump’s comments, telling reporters the Canada remarks “never came up once” during his G-7 meetings, though he then corrected himself and said that it “obviously” was mentioned by Joly, who he said has grown to become a “friend in the last few weeks.”

Ultimately American, European, Canadian and Japanese teams worked late into the night Thursday to secure the compromise agreement, which saw both the Americans and their allies making concessions.

For the Trump administration, that meant agreeing to language openly threatening sanctions on Russia if it doesn’t agree to a ceasefire, which Trump has avoided doing, arguing that it would disrupt a spirit of cooperation.

For the Europeans, the statement did not include language on a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or language opposing the forcible removal of Palestinians from Gaza – an acute concern given Trump’s stated plans to build luxury condos in the enclave and move Palestinians out.

The challenge of putting together a statement, however, pales in comparison to the uphill effort that will be necessary to reset the allies’ trade policies.

Trump announced a 25% global tariff on steel and aluminum that would significantly impact the E.U. and Canada. The Europeans responded with retaliatory tariffs that includes a 50% tariff on U.S. whiskey among other things.

Rubio said the moves weren’t intended as punitive toward America’s top allies, but aimed at restoring America’s steel and aluminum industries.

“This is not meant as a hostile move against Japan or Germany or anybody else,” Rubio told reporters. Trump, he said, “wants to reset the baseline and once that baseline is reset, then you can enter into bilateral negotiations with individual countries about changes that can be made to our trade.”

But Canadians view the moves as a threat to their very sovereignty and well-being, said Joly.

“There is a real fear of people across the country of losing their jobs and their families, of being able to have access to decent livelihoods,” she said.

She described Canada’s retaliatory tariffs as a “maximum pressure” campaign on the Trump administration to change course. She also appealed to the American people as Trump’s tariff war plunges the U.S. stock market to its lowest levels since he took office.

“To all the American friends here today, my message is clear: Trump tariffs are bad for American people,” she said.