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Summary: Despite a previous Twitter war with Canada and France, President Donald Trump arrived in Canada on Friday for the G7 Summit.
The White House announced on Thursday that President Donald Trump would no longer be attending the Group of 7 summit’s sessions on climate change and the environment. According to CNN, the decision was announced after a Twitter row between the Canadian prime minister and the President of France.
On Friday, Trump met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron at the G7 Summit in Quebec, despite their previous online arguments and subsequent badmouthing in the press.
White House Press Secretary said that Trump and Macron had a “pleasant exchange” when they met on Friday.
“President Trump and President Macron had a brief pull aside earlier today. They exchanged pleasantries and briefly discussed trade. We expect an additional meeting to take place this afternoon,” Sanders said.
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President Macron seemed to confirm this, tweeting a video of him with Trump with the caption, “Pursuing the conversation. Engaging, keeping the dialogue alive, now & ever. Sharing, reaching out, always, to promote the interests of the French people, and all those who believe in a world we can build together. With President Donald Trump, prior to the opening of G7 Summit.”
This “pleasant exchange” came after Trump allegedly told his advisors that he planned to fight other members of the summit. Trump has deferring views on topics such as climate change, Iran, and trade, and his brashness had angered Macron, who lobbed his own threat back at the American President before G7.
“Maybe the American president doesn’t care about being isolated today, but we don’t mind being six, if needs be,” Macron told The Independent. “Because these six represent values, represent an economic market, and more than anything, represent a real force at the international level today.”
Trump had considered skipping the G7 summit, but he went because advisors told him he would appear to be cowering away if he didn’t show. According to CNN, Trump is more focused on his June 12 meeting with North Korean dictator, Kim Jung Un, in Singapore.
On Friday, Trump said that he wanted Russia to join G7, which currently consists of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Russia was removed in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea.
The group of economic powerhouses meets every year to discuss economics but has become a place where other topics are also broached.
“You know, whether you like it or – and it may not be politically correct – but we have a world to run and in the G7, which used to be the G8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in,” Trump said, according to the BBC.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Trump’s idea to allow Russia back into the group and stated that it was not the right time to readmit Russia.
At this year’s G7 Summit, the topics to be discussed are: inclusive economic growth, gender equality and women’s empowerment, world peace and security, jobs of the future, and climate change and oceans.
