Kananaskis, June 17 (IANS) US President Donald Trump announced he was abruptly cutting short his participation in the G7 summit and returning home early to deal with the Iran-Israel crisis.
” I have to be back early for obvious reasons”, Trump earlier told reporters. He said he would be leaving after the formal dinner “with these wonderful leaders”.
He will be missing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Calgary Monday evening and will be participating in the summit of the powerful industrialised democracies, along with a select group of emerging economies, on Tuesday.
The summit was overshadowed by the escalating war of missiles between Israel and Iran that began on Friday.
When the summit began at this picturesque resort known for its ski slopes, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney told the leaders gathered around a glass-topped circular table that they were at “one of those turning points in history”.
The world is “more divided and dangerous” than during the recent G7 summits, and this was a “hinge” moment when the world “looks to this table” for solutions, he said.
Already, there were signs of a rift between the US and the other leaders because White House officials had said that Trump would not sign a joint declaration calling on both the warring nations to de-escalate.
“As soon as I leave here, we’re going to be doing something”, Trump said ominously about cutting short his visit.
On Truth Social, he posted a threat to Iranians: “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
“Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again”, he said.
NBC News reported that, according to an administration official, Trump had told the National Security Council to be ready in the White House Situation Room when he returns.
That is where strategic decisions are made and monitored.
From his post asking for the evacuation of Tehran, it was not clear if the US would directly intervene in the conflict or if it had information of a major onslaught by Israel.
Israel’s attacks on Iran scuttled Trump’s diplomacy with Iran to find a solution to ending Tehran’s nuclear weapons programme.
Muddying the picture, Trump had also said, “I think Iran basically is at the negotiating table, they want to make a deal”.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that Trump said that talks were underway.
There were US offers and “if the United States can get a ceasefire, that’s a very good thing”, Macron said.
Earlier in the day, the proceedings at the summit appeared to be going smoothly without the anticipated fireworks because of Trump’s tariff war against the participating countries and threats to take over Canada.
Others at the summit are Prime Ministers Keir Starmer of Britain, Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Shigeru Ishiba of Japan, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, along with host Carney, who is also the president of G7.
Besides Modi, other invitees to the G7 meeting are Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Lee Jae-Myung of South Korea, and Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese of Australia, and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, who will participate at the summit on Tuesday.
About Monday, Trump told reporters, “I think we got a lot done”.
He and Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer signed a trade agreement sealing their peace in the tariff war.
Trump had a long meeting of about an hour with Carney, who said a trade deal was achievable. According to Carney’s office, the “leaders agreed to pursue negotiations toward a deal within the coming 30 days”.
Another point of dissonance was the expulsion of Russia from what used to be the G8, before shrinking to the G7. Trump said that if Moscow hadn’t been thrown out, the war with Ukraine wouldn’t have happened. “I would say that was a mistake because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now”, he said.
At the 2018 G7 summit also in Canada, Trump had raised the expulsion of Russia, and his suggestion to readmit Moscow led to an angry confrontation led by the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Trump had also shortened his participation at that summit to go to a meeting with North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un. That meeting failed when North Korea refused to agree to a solution to end its nuclear ambitions in return for lifting sanctions – a scenario similar to the diplomacy with Iran now.
–IANS
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