PARIS (FRANCE) – Foreign ministers of the G7 group meet in Paris from Monday for two days of talks expected to see European powers press the United States to seek a fair settlement for Ukraine in the war against Russia and deter Washington from further military action against Iran.
Ministers from the leading industrialised nations of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States will be gathering with preoccupations strikingly similar to those of the last such meeting in March.
Russia’s war against Ukraine following the February 2022 full-scale invasion of its neighbour is grinding towards its fifth anniversary. And Washington is still not ruling out new attacks against Iran even after the defeat of President Donald Trump’s Republicans in the midterms.
All eyes will be on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who is due to attend both days, unlike the March meeting where he only came for one.
This G7 ministerial meeting, one of the final acts of the French G7 presidency that saw President Emmanuel Macron host Donald Trump for the leaders’ summit this summer in the lakeside resort of Evian, had long been scheduled to be held in the southern port city of Marseille.
But at the last minute the event was moved to Paris, with only scheduling reasons given for the change.
The visit by Rubio — seen by US media as a potential candidate to succeed Trump — will be his first abroad since the midterms. Washington will also in 2027 take over the G7 presidency from France.
– ‘Europeans will be represented’ –
The meeting coincides with US-mediated talks with Moscow and Kyiv in Abu Dhabi scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday on ending the Ukraine war, with Europe concerned Kyiv must not be forced to accept disadvantageous conditions.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told RTL radio that on this occasion “Europeans will be represented and France will be in Abu Dhabi to participate in these talks”.
Trump stoked fears of a US pivot toward the Kremlin by predicting a “very big” deal with Russia involving not only the Ukraine war but “all of Europe”.
Jared Kushner, the US president’s envoy and son-in-law, said the United States was working on “a broader European security architecture that can help establish the conditions for lasting peace”, a concept met with scepticism in the past by Europe.
On Iran, Trump has not ruled out new strikes, including at so-called Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected nuclear site which Tehran denies is such a facility. Europeans, however, are eager to see a resolution and shipping traffic return to normal in the Strait of Hormuz energy transit hub.
“We’re dealing with them now,” Trump said of the Iranians Friday. “They want to make a deal very badly.”
The sidelines of the meeting will also see the French finance ministry hosting on Monday a donor conference to raise funds to repair the dome protecting the nuclear reactor that exploded in Ukraine’s Chernobyl in 1986 after it was damaged in a Russian strike last year.
Around 500 million euros is required but only just over half has been raised so far with a target date of spring 2027 to muster the rest of the funds, the French finance ministry told AFP.
Even though the meeting was moved to Paris, Marseille will still host the launch of a network of 14 global ports uniting to combat drug trafficking, which has become a major scourge in the southern city, Barrot said.
As he addressed reporters while preparing to leave for France, Rubio declined to comment directly on Trump’s and the Republicans’ crushing loss in the US midterm elections.
“It is not uncommon to have a division of power in this country,” Rubio told reporters, alluding to the fact that Trump will now see both houses of Congress controlled by the Democrats.
Asked about widespread protests in France, Rubio added that he was not worried and trusted US counterparts on the ground who advised him it is safe to attend the G7 meeting.
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