Paris: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet his counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialised democracies Monday, with unresolved world crises on the agenda and questions about how President Donald Trump will approach foreign policy after his Republican Party’s massive losses in the midterm elections.
Two days of talks among the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan in Paris coincide with major protests across Europe, including in the French capital.
The Russia-Ukraine war, the Iran conflict, energy and artificial intelligence are among the main topics for discussion. Many US allies will be eager to hear how Trump plans to proceed on each.
The trip is Rubio’s first foreign venture since the midterm elections dealt Trump’s party severe losses and cost the GOP control of Congress, partly because of deeply unpopular policies like the Iran war.
Asked about allies wanting to know what comes next after the elections, Rubio told reporters that the countries he is meeting with this week understand American politics and they, too, have experienced divisions in government and divisions in their own system.
There has been little sign that the Democrats’ gains will affect Trump’s strategy, and his first major personnel decision has installed a hard-line supporter, Stephen Miller, as chief of staff, who has advocated extreme positions on both domestic and foreign policy.
America’s top diplomat is seen by many as presenting a gentler side to Trump’s often brusque approach to both friends and foes but there has been speculation – that he has denied – that he might choose to leave the administration early to prepare for a 2028 presidential run.
Trump has floated the idea of a partnership with Europe to bring Russia’s war in Ukraine to an end. The president’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are set to meet both Ukrainian and Russian officials in Abu Dhabi this week to discuss potential compromises.
Rubio said postwar security guarantees for Ukraine and the rest of Europe have been a top concern for allies.
There’s been some advances made in what that architecture could look like post-conflict, Rubio said in Florida before flying to Paris. Nothing’s been finalised yet, and maybe some progress can be made in Abu Dhabi.
At the same time, Qatari and other mediators have proposed an interim solution to end the deadlock over the conflict with Iran that has sent fuel prices soaring amid instability in key shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
Rubio said the sides are not at the verge of a breakthrough, while reiterating that Trump prefers a diplomatic solution. But he noted of diplomacy that right now, it hasn’t been very productive because the Iranian demands are simply not just unacceptable.
He said he expects allies to have a lot of questions about the conflict and next steps.
The G7 meetings follow a larger diplomatic gathering that Rubio hosted in Atlanta just over a week ago for G20 foreign ministers – a meeting that produced little consensus on any major global issues.
The G7, which comprises the world’s biggest industrialised democracies rather than the 20 largest global economies, is made up entirely of US allies. Yet the differences will likely again confound top diplomats. The French have already signalled that the G7 meeting also will not produce a joint communique.
The French hosts, who have invited Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine to participate in some of the discussions, have numerous other priorities, including Africa, China, Cuba and Haiti. The French Foreign Ministry said there will be a meeting on artificial intelligence and a separate session on support for Ukraine.
Trump and his administration have rattled the nerves of America’s G7 partners on issues like support for Ukraine and NATO and opposition to the International Criminal Court. All of the G7 members – except Japan, which has a separate treaty alliance with the US – are in NATO.
The administration is pushing to dismantle the ICC, the world’s first war crimes tribunal to which all G7 members but the US belong. The Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions on the ICC and a number of its employees, saying it is trying to investigate Americans.
Allies have been told that if they don’t want us to take these actions against the ICC, then they should convince the ICC to wake up and realise that they do not have jurisdiction over citizens of countries that are not members, Rubio said Sunday.
