Europe has once again laid out the proverbial red carpet for Donald Trump at the G7 summit in the Swiss Alps this week.
Pomp and circumstance, gifts and warm welcomes were all on display for the US president, with the diplomatic awkward barbs exchanged forgotten for now.
The Group of Seven is coming together for a series of meetings that started on Monday to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Iran as well as the global economy and AI.
The date of the annual summit was put back by a day in order to allow Trump to celebrate his 80th birthday on Sunday and a series of additional adjustments appear to have been made in order to capture the attention of the mercurial president.
It follows a year of tensions and public spats between Trump and European leaders on a variety of issues including Greenland, Nato, Iran, the Strait of Hormuz, tariffs, immigration and more.
Last year, Trump departed from the prestigious gathering in Canada early and hit out at this year’s organiser and French president Emmanuel Macron as “publicity seeking”. This week they will be hoping for a more collaborative approach.
Personalised football shirt
On Tuesday, the president was presented with a personalised German football shirt with his name and the number “47” emblazoned on the back, as he is the 47th president of the United States.
The gift was presented to the leader by German chancellor Friedrich Merz during a working session.
The two have butted heads over the last year on issues ranging from Nato to the Iran war. Merz previously said the US was being “humiliated” by Iran at the negotiation table, while Trump complained that the chancellor was doing a “terrible job” in Germany.
Their differences appear to have been put aside as Trump beamed at the gift and the pair took pictures for press.
Dinner at Palace of Versailles
Macron is reported to have arranged an elaborate dinner at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday as an incentive for Trump to stay for the entirety of the three day event.
The US leader is a fan of the building’s gold ornamentation including its gold plated gates at the entrance as well as gold leaf throughout the woodwork and walls and gold woven into the fabrics that adorn the palace, French officials told The Guardian.
The 403-year-old palace, located around 18km west of the capital’s city centre, is a former royal residence that was commissioned by King Louis XIV.
Tailored meeting agenda
Other adjustments include the dropping of any discussions on the climate crisis, of which Trump is a fierce critic.
China’s economic success is instead the centrepiece of the event in an apparent attempt to unite Trump and Europe towards a common goal. But Macron has stopped short of criticising the country, instead saying last week that the G7 need to “help China to generate the internal demand that it really needs”.
Each working session will be followed by communiques summarising points of agreement and consensus. These will include a variety of topics including artificial intelligence, war and more.
A summary will also be issued in regards to the impasse over Gaza as Trump is set to meet leaders from Egypt, Qatar and the UAE to discuss Hamas’ disarmament.
European members will want to persuade Trump that Ukraine’s position has strengthened with President Volodymyr Zelensky attending a roundtable on Tuesday.
They will seek to show that Europe is now shouldering the financial, military and political burden of Ukraine’s war effort, and the G7 should agree on how to approach meaningful negotiations with Putin.
The G7 includes Britain, France, Germany, the US, Canada, Italy and Japan, while the European Union also joins the summit each year. It operates on a rotating presidency with France taking over the leadership from Canada this year.
It was founded following the 1973 OPEC oil embargo as a forum for the richest nations to discuss crises affecting the world economy. Its member states have a combined annual GDP of more than $50 trillion – just under half the world economy.
Russia was a member from 1993 until 2014 with its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
