Trump to leave G7 summit early due to Middle East situation
KANANASKIS, Canada: US President Donald Trump is leaving the Group of Seven summit in Canada a day early due to the situation in the Middle East, the White House said on Monday.
Speaking alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump said the former Group of Eight had been wrong to kick out Russia in 2014 after it annexed Crimea.
"This was a big mistake," Trump said, adding he believed Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had Putin not been ejected.
"Putin speaks to me. He doesn't speak to anybody else ... he's not a happy person about it. I can tell you that he basically doesn't even speak to the people that threw him out, and I agree with him," Trump said.
Though Trump stopped short of saying Russia should be reinstated in the group, his comments had raised doubts about how much Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy can achieve when he is scheduled to meet the leaders on Tuesday.
"It was a rough start," said Josh Lipsky, a former senior IMF official who now chairs the international economics department at the Atlantic Council.
European nations had wanted to persuade Trump to back tougher sanctions on Moscow.
Zelenskyy said he had planned to discuss new weapons purchases for Ukraine with Trump.
European officials said they hoped to use Tuesday's meeting with Zelenskyy and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and next week's NATO summit to convince Trump to toughen his stance.
In another early sign the group of democracies lacked unity, a US official said Trump would not sign a draft statement calling for de-escalation of the Israel-Iran conflict.
Canada has abandoned any effort to adopt a comprehensive communique to avert a repeat of the 2018 summit in Quebec, when Trump instructed the U.S. delegation to withdraw its approval of the final communique after leaving.
Leaders have prepared several draft documents seen by Reuters, including on migration, artificial intelligence, and critical minerals. None of them have been approved by the United States, however, according to sources briefed on the documents.
Without Trump, it is unclear if there will be any declarations, a European diplomat said.
Carney invited non-G7 members Mexico, India, Australia, South Africa, South Korea and Brazil, as well as Ukraine.
TARIFFS
Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday they had finalised a trade deal reached between the two allies last month, making Britain the first country to agree to a deal for lower US tariffs.
Carney said in a statement he had agreed with Trump that their two nations should try to wrap up a new economic and security deal within 30 days.
Trump said a new economic deal with host Canada was possible but stressed tariffs had to play a role, a position the Canadian government strongly opposes.
"Our position is that we should have no tariffs on Canadian exports to the United States," said Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to Washington.
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