A key question for this weekend's Group of Seven summit in France is — does the meeting matter anymore? And if so, in what way?
As Tim Ross, Gregory Viscusi and Arne Delfs point out, multilateralism, the global architecture that arose from the ashes of World War II, is waning with leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump and newly minted U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The nationalist mood sweeping many countries has seen coordinated discussion on the economy and issues like climate change dissipate.
But even as Trump rewrites the rules for these international meetings (farewell formal communiques), the G-7 in Biarritz was one summit where he most risked feeling isolated. Of the seven leaders, at least four — France, Germany, Canada, Japan — have defended the global order. Trump found more of his "spirit animals" at the recent G-20 in Japan, where he hung out with strongmen from Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Brazil and China.
He may encounter more sympathetic souls among other leaders invited onto the summit's sidelines at the French resort. That list includes the right-wing premiers of Australia and India, plus Spain, Chile, Egypt and Senegal.
The attention Trump devotes to them may show whether he considers the G-7 gang to be any longer the cool kids of geopolitics in this populist era.
- Rosalind Mathieson
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