The G7 summit is a central event on the global stage. This year it takes place from Monday to Wednesday (June 15-17) in Evian, France, on the shores of Lake Geneva. The French currently hold the presidency of this prestigious group of “the seven major industrialized nations in the world.”
This also means that Europeans will once again face Donald Trump, the highly unpredictable American president.
The G7 countries are: the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy. These are powerful industrial nations, which is why G7 summits always involve maximum security measures – for fear of mass protests. There are also arrests in Evian.
The agenda will focus on issues such as global migration flows, climate protection or the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, but also protests.
The fate of Ukraine will be one of the main topics at Evian. German government sources indicate that the military situation in the conflict with Russia has changed in recent months. After some successes, Ukraine may be hoping that the door to peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin may soon open.
Europeans certainly want to be part of this process.
French officials have announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend the G7 summit. In other words, the conflict in Ukraine looks set to once again attract Donald Trump’s attention. The American side also wants to discuss the economic potential of Al.
This is why the French have invited, among others, Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, who will come from San Francisco to join the G7 on Lake Geneva.
As happened at last year’s G7 summit in Canada, there are no plans for all seven leaders to sign a final joint statement. Instead, the goal is to reach agreement on specific topics.