By Maria Cheng
TORONTO (Reuters) -As the latest meeting of the Group of Seven’s foreign ministers begins in Canada on Tuesday, Canada's foreign minister Anita Anand said the agenda will focus on issues including Arctic security, the war in Ukraine and securing peace in the Middle East.
Amid the current era of "geopolitical volatility," Anand said her U.S. counterpart Marco Rubio has been "a very constructive member" of the G7 and commended the U.S. for its efforts to secure peace in the Middle East.
John Kirton, founder of the G7 Research Group at the University of Toronto, said it was likely foreign ministers would accomplish more at the Niagara-on-the-Lake meeting than the earlier meeting of G7 heads of state in June at Kananaskis.
“The fact that President Trump won’t be there will definitely help,” he said. “They won’t have to watch every facial expression or be careful of any rants he might unleash.”
Kirton noted that there had never been a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting where so many of the ministers are rookies; Anand was named Canada’s foreign minister in May and Marco Rubio was only appointed U.S. Secretary of State in February. Kirton said the longest-serving foreign minister was Italy's Antonio Tajani, who has been in the job since October 2022.
“It’s not like in the days of Kissinger when you had someone who was so influential at these summits that they set the agenda,” Kirton said. “This time, it’s like they’re all in the same boat for the first time and they’ve got to row very hard to get something accomplished.”
Anand said she expected to have focused conversations with partners about the “long path forward” to peace in both Ukraine and the Middle East.
“We have to be ambitious for the objective of long-lasting peace,” she said, noting that as winter arrives, Canada and the G7 will be looking at how best to support the people of Ukraine via the energy infrastructure, food supply and longer-term reconstruction.
(Reporting by Maria Cheng)
