EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France: Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries gathered in France for their annual summit on Tuesday agreed to step up support for Ukraine, with United States (US) President Donald Trump urging Russia to negotiate a peace deal as he did with Iran in recent weeks.
They agreed to continue working together for a “just and lasting peace” in Ukraine by maintaining pressure on Russia, after hearing directly from Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on the country’s current situation, Kyodo News reported a Japanese official said.
The consensus came despite increasingly strained ties between Trump and European powers over a range of issues, from trade and NATO to his push to take over Greenland and, most recently, the US-Israeli war with Iran.
“Russia should make a deal. Russia has lost tremendous amounts of people, and so has Ukraine,” Trump told reporters after attending a session with other G7 leaders in Evian-les-Bains, a French spa town near the Swiss border on the shores of Lake Geneva.
Trump said he will do whatever he can to end the conflict between the neighbouring countries. He suggested that the US could end the temporary lifting of some sanctions on Russia, introduced to lower oil prices in the wake of the Iran war.
“Soon we’ll be able to do that because the oil is now flowing,” he insisted, referring to a deal with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil shipments.
Zelenskyy wrote on social media that the focus of his meeting with the G7 leaders was “to strengthen air defence for Ukraine and advance diplomacy” as part of efforts “to make Russia end its war. Peace is needed”.
Japanese Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, told her G7 counterparts and Zelenskyy that it is important to preserve the group’s unity to prompt Russia to take “positive and concrete action quickly”, according to the official.
She was also quoted as saying that any attempts to “unilaterally change the status quo by force should not be tolerated”, while voicing concern over military cooperation between Russia and North Korea and deepening military ties between Russia and China.
Amid heightened international attention on Iran, the exclusive session on Ukraine took place at a time when Kyiv has strengthened its position on the battlefield by working more closely with European countries than with the US.
At the outset of a meeting with French President, Emmanuel Macron, a day earlier, Trump said he would ramp up efforts to end the fighting that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“Now that this is finished, we’re going to be focusing on that, see if we can get that one done,” Trump said at the time, speaking of the wars in Iran and Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the second day of the three-day summit, the situation in West Asia and reform of international development partnerships were also high on the agenda.
In addition to Zelenskyy, France, which holds the G7 presidency this year, has invited the leaders of some other countries outside the group, including Brazil, Egypt, India, Qatar, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.
During a working lunch on West Asia on Tuesday, the G7 leaders and their counterparts from Egypt, Qatar and the UAE had detailed discussions about the nearly four-month-old Iran war and its fallout.
The leaders welcomed the preliminary US-Iran deal to end the fighting and reopen the strait, and agreed to continue working toward peace and stability in West Asia, according to the Japanese official.
Takaichi said it is crucial that free and safe navigation in the key shipping route be ensured, and that a final agreement be reached as soon as possible between Washington and Tehran.
The leaders of the G7, which consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, as well as the European Union, then participated in a session on development finance reform with their outreach partners.
Recognising that traditional official development assistance has increasingly proven insufficient to meet the needs of poorer countries, France has led the G7 in seeking to create more win-win partnerships, according to Kyodo News.
“We are united in reforming the development cooperation system and shaping mutually beneficial partnerships that take into account our strategic interests and those of our partners,” they said in a joint declaration, citing the need to promote more effective mobilisation of private capital to finance long-term projects. – BERNAMA
