President Donald Trump attended 2025’s G7 summit Monday amid ongoing trade negotiations with most of America’s trading partners, escalated tensions with Israel and Iran and the persisting conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump has challenged several G7 members during their visits to the White House on issues like trade and support for the Russia-Ukraine war.
The little that was public of the first day’s events appeared to be mostly seamless, except for a few mildly tense minutes in a bilateral news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Trump talked about how former President Barack Obama and the previous Canadian prime minister kicked Russia out of what was previously the G8. Carney didn’t comment.
They “didn’t want to have Russia in and I would say that was a mistake because you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in,” Trump remarked.
Today, the G7 includes the seven advanced industrialized democracies that have comprised it since the mid-1970s – the United States, Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Japan – and the European Union.
Carney, who is the summit chairman this year, spoke to some of the stark realities facing the group in his opening remarks.
“The world’s more divided and dangerous, hostile states and terrorists have expanded their capabilities and their reach, threatening global security in our local communities. Global commerce, energy systems, even intelligence, are all being rewired,” Carney said.
He referenced some of the steps the member states are taking – steps Trump has actively and publicly pushed for – to enlarge their contributions to Ukraine.
“All of us around this table are reinforcing our militaries and security services for the new world,” he said.
Carney called on the group to model “cooperation” as a path to successfully navigating what he described as a “hinge moment” in history.
“Resilience comes from cooperation. Cooperation that starts around this table,” Carney said. “We might not agree on absolutely every issue, but where we will cooperate, we will make an enormous difference for citizens and for the world.”
Besides a news conference and private meeting with Carney, Trump also met one-on-one with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Otherwise, the day was filled with formal summit sessions.
Trump is supposed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sometime Tuesday and he may also meet with Mexico’s president this week.
