For the second time since his election in 2017, Emmanuel Macron is hosting, from June 15 to 17, a G7 summit, the meeting of the seven richest democracies in the world. The images of heads of state chatting quietly on the banks of Lake Geneva promise to be beautiful, but they will have difficulty masking the tense smiles of the protagonists. Because make no mistake: the fractures are deep between these nations, to the point that the final communiqué, if it exists, promises to be as transparent as the waters of the lake.
Despite everything and beyond these disagreements, we must maintain these types of meetings. Firstly because we haven’t found anything better, neither the summits of emerging powers, nor the ephemeral peace council imagined by the American president. Then because it is precisely when the balance of power imposes its rules that we must maintain a space for dialogue and the search for common solutions to shared problems: the imbalances in the global economy – the subject that Emmanuel Macron has chosen to place at the top of the agenda – but also the war in Iran, which is causing thousands of deaths in the Middle East and weakening all the economies of the globe.
Once again, Donald Trump will be the main character of the play, but he arrives this year more weakened than his outbursts would suggest. On the Iranian issue, he seems resigned to speeding up the conclusion of an agreement to escape an unpopular war. And if he gets it, he will also need European support to demine the Strait of Hormuz. Concerning Ukraine, the balance of power has changed somewhat since he chose to lose interest in it. It is a shame, in these conditions, that the French presidency agreed to erase the debt of poor countries and climate issues from the agenda to please the American president. We must continue to negotiate with Donald Trump, with our heads held high.
