US president Donald Trump kicked off his first meeting at the G7 leaders summit in Alberta, Canada, by suggesting that Russia should be invited to rejoin the group from which it was expelled following the invasion of Crimea in 2014.
The European members of the group have prepared a wide portfolio of subjects to address at the summit, including proposals to toughen G7 sanctions on Russia. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has proposed lowering the G7 price cap on Russian crude to $45/bl and banning imports of refined products made from Russian oil.
But Trump, at the beginning of his meeting with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney today, said that "you spend so much time talking about Russia, and [Russian president Vladimir Putin] is no longer at the table, so it makes life more complicated."
Expelling Russia was a mistake, Trump said, blaming the decision on former US president Barack Obama and former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The broader political background is in some ways similar to the G7 summit in 2018, also hosted by Canada, when Trump first told his fellow western leaders they should not have expelled Russia from the group.
Now as then, sanctions against Russia are on the G7 agenda and the US Congress is advancing legislation to target Russia's energy exports.
The key difference is that Trump in 2025 has sufficient control over the Republican majority in both chambers of Congress to block any legislation he does not like. "They'll be guided by me" on the Russia sanctions legislation, he said earlier this month, calling it a "harsh bill".
"At the right time, I'll do what I want to do. But they're waiting for me to decide on what to do," Trump said.
Trump has argued that imposing new economic penalties against Russia would derail the ongoing Russia-Ukrainian peace talks, even though he has acknowledged the negotiations have made no progress.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the sidelines of the G7 summit, the White House said.
Not seeing eye-to-eye on trade, either
Trump's fellow leaders were hoping to push him to roll back the unilateral tariffs he imposed on nearly all US trading partners, but Trump's public comments at the start of his meeting with Carney indicated no willingness to compromise on this issue as well.
"I think we have different concepts," Trump said. "I have a tariff concept. Mark has a different concept, which is something that some people like, but we're going to see if we can get to the bottom of it today. I am a tariff person."
Canada's strong response to Trump's tariffs made him roll back the broad tariffs he imposed on the US' North American neighbors at the beginning of his second term. The bulk of US imports from Canada and Mexico remains duty-free, but Trump's tariffs on steel, aluminum, cars and auto parts do not make an exemption for Canada and Mexico.
The effective US tariff rate on imports from Canada and Mexico — the amount of duties collected from all imported goods divided by their value — rose in April to 2.3pc and 4.1pc respectively, up from nearly zero in January, according to US Department of Commerce data.
Trump is separately meeting with Mexico president Claudia Sheinbaum later today.
Despite a busy pace of meetings with fellow leaders, Trump extended the customary press gaggle at the beginning of his meeting with Carney to take questions on US domestic politics, including his directive Sunday night to the US immigration authorities to carry out massive raids in the largest US cities.
Carney in the end had to cut Trump off, asking him to carry on with their meeting.
"We have a few more minutes with the president and his team, and then we actually have to start the [G7] meeting to address some of these big issues," Carney said.
