The three juiciest G7 quotes

Babe, wake up, a new reality drama just dropped — apparently one of the contestants dunks on another castmate as “publicity seeking”. Uff, cue that Netflix right the way up.

No wait, sorry. That was the US president’s description of the French leader at this week’s G7 summit in Canada. But if the trailer is that spicy, we really gotta watch it all, right?

So here are the three juiciest quotes from this year’s G7

• “They should let Russia come back in” - US President Donald Trump 

The president made these remarks at a media appearance alongside Canada’s Mark Carney, going on to argue that Russia’s 2014 expulsion from the G8 was a mistake: “if they were at the table, maybe we wouldn’t have had the Ukraine situation.”

He’s made this argument before (eg, 2018, also in Canada), per the president’s pledge to leave all lines open to extract better deals. But many argue it was actually the West’s limp response to Putin’s 2014 seizure of Crimea that emboldened Putin elsewhere.

2. “We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon” - The G7 leaders (🇨🇦 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 + 🇪🇺)

With the Israel-Iran war raging by the time these leaders gathered for their family photo, they soon dropped a short statement a) reiterating their “support for the security of Israel”, b) labelling Iran “the principal source of regional instability and terror”, and c) urging that any end to this war should also lead to a ceasefire in Gaza.

But as Trump’s fork became clearer (hit Iran’s Fordow bunker or not), he left the summit early on Monday and was huddled with his national security team in DC by that evening. 

3. “This underscores the importance of standing in total solidarity with Ukraine” - Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

What’s the ‘this’? Carney is referring to Putin’s massive airstrikes on Kyiv, with 400+ drones and 30+ missiles leaving at least 15 civilians dead just as G7 leaders gathered in Canada’s remote Rockies resort with a special guest, Ukraine’s own Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The message in Putin’s timing wasn’t lost on the G7, with Germany’s Merz voicing ‘cautious optimism’ the US will now impose further sanctions on Russia. But ‘optimism’ might be doing some serious heavy lifting, as Trump had already left before Zelensky arrived, and his previous deadlines on Putin have all lapsed without consequence.

Anyway, the US president ain’t the only roadblock here — Ukraine is still waiting for Merz to deliver on his own promise to share Germany’s famous Taurus missiles.