Canada and the G7 meeting

Canada and the G7 meeting by Maj (ret’d) CORNELIU, CHISU, CD, PMSC FEC, CET, P.Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East Canada hosted the recent meeting of the G7 most industrialized countries in a fast evolving geopolitical convolution. The G7 meeting was marked by the recent war between Israel and Iran, which started just days before the G7 meeting hosted and chaired by Canada. This year's summit took place against the backdrop of a new war between Israel and Iran, which pushed U.S. President Donald Trump to leave the summit a day early. Despite these new issues on the world scene, Canada lead by Prime Minister Mark Carney seemed to perform successfully. Carney held bilateral meetings with Trump and other world leaders during the two-day summit. Carney's office said Monday that the U.S. president agreed to negotiate a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S. by mid-July. However, as Carney is surely learning by now, Trump could walk away from that deadline as easily as he walks away from G7 meetings. The U.S. president said that getting a trade deal with Canada was a priority for him when he went into this summit, until it was not. Donald Trump’s abrupt departure from the G7 meeting on Monday night was not exactly an insult to his host Mark Carney, who, with typical Canadian courtesy, thanked the president for showing up, however briefly. As usual, Donald Trump left behind him a collection of eyebrow-raising remarks, including some throwaway lines as he departed on Air Force One about how Canada, his host for two days, should become his country’s 51st state. There he goes again. How Carney manages Trump will be a defining feature of his tenure as prime minister, as it was for Justin Trudeau. While these are early days, a vague shape of that relationship is starting to emerge. For now, Trump’s reasonably positive view of Carney, amply displayed when the prime minister visited the White House earlier this year, seems to be holding. When the two men held a joint media availability, Trump allowed that they shared different views on tariffs, but he was almost deferential to Carney’s position. “I have a tariff concept,” Trump said. “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.” Mark Carney seemed to do very well at this summit. He acted with diplomacy, maturity and showed true leadership, despite it being his first participation. The attendance of Donald Trump, an American president whose entire second term has been paid homage to unrestrained power, made this the most bizarre gathering of the group in its half-century history. As host, Prime Minister Carney had two tactical jobs. In the ongoing battle of systemic narratives, the first was to pre-empt any remotely credible spin portraying the G7 as dead based on a classic Trumpian catastrophe whose propaganda rollers would have blamed the guests rather than the skunk at the garden party. As Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne said of Trump in his post-G7 piece arguing for a return to the G6, “He is fundamentally opposed to everything the G7 stands for, including the G7.” Trump’s early departure from the summit, ostensibly to return to Washington to manage the United States response to escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran, was not that catastrophe; it was the pre-emption of that catastrophe. As some have said of Trump’s G7 exit, it could have been worse. He could have stayed. As it was, Trump’s pre-finale exit was the best possible outcome for the G7. Prime Minister Carney’s second tactical job was securing the best possible outcome for the G7 as a political, geopolitical and existential imperative and he performed this task successfully. French President Emmanuel Macron, who will host the G7 next year, commented that Mr. Carney fulfilled his mission as G7 host by keeping the multilateral body united. "We shouldn't ask the Canadian presidency to resolve every issue on earth today. That would be unfair," said Macron. "But he held the group together. He did it with his characteristic elegance and determination." Along side the summit, Prime Minister Carney invited some important world leaders who can contribute to improving the international relations of Canada for the benefit of Canadians. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on social media that he had an "excellent" meeting with Prime Minister Carney. He complimented him and the Canadian government on "successfully" hosting the summit. Canada and India agreed to name new high commissioners and restore regular diplomatic services to citizens in both countries. Canada expelled six Indian diplomats and consular officials last fall, following news that law enforcement had linked agents of the Indian government to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens. In conclusion, Prime Minister Mark Carney performed very well at the summit and proved he is savvy during his meetings. At a news conference closing the G7 summit, Carney said allies' attention would shift next week from addressing threats to economic security to addressing issues of global defence and security at the upcoming NATO and Canada-EU summits. He continues his journey of putting Canada back where it belongs on the international scene by heading to Europe to attend the summits on NATO and Canada-EU relations. The Prime Minister's Office said the leaders will work to "deepen the Canada-EU relationship across all sectors," including trade and defence. The NATO meeting will likely focus on defence spending. NATO allies are expected to adopt a plan to hike the defence-spending target for members to five per cent of national GDP — a level Canada has not reached since the 1950s. Prime Minister Carney announced last week that Canada would rapidly advance its military spending timeline to hit the current NATO target of two per cent of national GDP by adding $9 billion to the fiscal framework this year. Prime Minister Carney warned that Canada depends too much on an increasingly unreliable United States for its defence and is spending too much of its rearmament budget south of the border. He said clearly that; "We recognize that our leadership will be defined not just by the strength of our values but the values of our strength." Hoping for the best for Canada, it seems that we are on the right track. What do you think?