No confirmed bilateral meeting with Trump, as Carney heads to G7 summit

GENEVA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to attend the annual G7 summit on Monday in France, with no official bilateral meeting confirmed with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The summit will run from June 15 to 17 in Evian-Les-Bains, with leaders from Italy, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Korea and India among the list of participants. Countries from the Gulf will also take part, including the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Trump is scheduled to arrive at the summit on Monday, just one day after he announced the U.S. has reached a peace deal with Iran and instructed the naval blockade to leave the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif first broke the news of the deal on Sunday, which includes the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. Pakistan has been mediating talks between the two countries.

Sharif said a signing ceremony is scheduled to take place on Friday in Switzerland. However, the fate of the deal remains uncertain after Israel carried out strikes in the southern part of Lebanon on Saturday.

On Monday, Trump will face Carney and European leaders following many disagreements over NATO, Ukraine and trade since his return to the White House last year. The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz has also impacted G7 and global economies, amid rising oil prices.

Carney’s summit appearance is the last stop on week-long trip to France and Ireland. On Friday, Carney signed an intelligence-sharing agreement with France, adding that the next world order will likely be built out of Europe.

Carney has looked to Canada’s European partners to help build out his trade diversification strategy, which aims to get Canada to rely less on trade with the U.S.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said despite Carney’s engagements abroad, he is not bringing home results and should repeal regulations to export more energy to European markets.

“Why can’t we get our goods to Europe? It’s not because the Europeans are shutting us out,” said Poilievre, during a press conference in Ottawa. “It’s because the Liberal government is shutting us in with anti-development laws.”

The trade file with the U.S. has gained momentum in recent weeks, with the July 1 deadline to renew the Canada-United-States-Mexico-Agreement (CUSMA) likely to pass without agreement between the three countries.

Fen Hampson, professor at the Norman School of International Affairs at Carleton University, said he would measure the success of the summit from a Canadian standpoint on whether Carney secures a meeting with Trump.

“A serious meeting between the two of them will be a very important indication of the tenor of the bilateral relationship between the two leaders going forward,” said Hampson.

Hampson added that Carney needs to have a “straight-talk” conversation with Trump. Carney suggested in a press conference earlier this week that the G7 is often a forum where leaders can have those honest conversations.

Carney said any issues of trade will be discussed by Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Chief Trade Negotiator Janice Charette and their U.S. counterparts. Both will be attending the summit in Evian.

One potential issue of alignment could be the question of trade imbalances with China, which will be a focus of discussion for the G7 leaders. Carney participated in call hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron last Thursday with U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.

“When they talk about macro-economic stabilization, that’s code for how do we deal with China,” said Hampson. “Because Germany has had major plant closures…the Chinese are dumping goods in the European market, it’s hurting the Germans big time, it’s hurting the French.”

Another point of potential difference between Canada and the U.S. would be on the issue of online safety for children and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI).

Canada, France and the U.K. have all tabled legislation to add age restrictions on social media platforms.

Several tech CEOs will attend the G7 meeting this year, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis and Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez among the list of attendees.

On Friday, Anthropic disabled foreign access to its most advanced AI models, citing an export control directive from the U.S. government as the reason for the move. This could accelerate discussion around sovereign AI among other G7 members.

No joint communique from G7 leaders is expected to be issued at the conclusion of this year’s meeting.

Thousands of protestors took to the streets of Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday, ahead of the summit which is taking place just across Lake Geneva. It was organized by the No-G7 coalition and was initially peaceful, with protestors showing signs critical of Trump and global conflicts.

The protest resulted in a Tesla being set on fire and several clashes with the police.

The city made several precautions ahead of Sunday’s demonstrations, including boarded up businesses and a heavy police presence in the capital city. Geneva learned its lesson after anti-G8 protests in 2003 resulted in riots.

National Post

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