I’m a senior writer for CBC News, covering the G7 summit from Kananaskis.
Mark Carney’s opening words for Donald Trump, before the cameras, included the statement that “the G7 is nothing without U.S. leadership.”
That was presumably a planned line and it can be read as a statement of intent or hope — that this meeting won’t result in the sort of blow-up that marked the last time Trump attended a G7 summit in Canada.
The rest of Carney and Trump’s 7½ minutes together in front of reporters was a reminder of how challenging that can be.
As my colleagues have noted below, the U.S. president quickly steered the conversation to Russia’s exclusion from these summits, starting in 2014 — a decision he wrongly blames on Justin Trudeau, the host of the 2018 G7 summit in Charlevoix, Que.
It’s possible, I think, that Trump is conflating the original decision to disinvite Russia — which was made when Stephen Harper was prime minister — and some of the conflict that occurred in Charlevoix.
Immediately before departing for the 2018 summit, Trump had raised the idea of re-inviting Russia. During the official discussion in Charlevoix, the other six leaders made a point of arguing to Trump that it would be a bad idea.
“We wanted to be very categorical that there was no room for Russia at the G7,” Trudeau later told me.
Mark Carney likely isn’t going to feel the need to relitigate that case over the next two days. But Trump’s willingness to inject a little disagreement into the proceedings — even before this summit had officially begun — suggests it will be impossible to get through these two days without friction.
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