The finance ministers of the Group of 7 richest liberal democracies are meeting at a meeting that begins today in Canada, with Ukraine as a special guest - talks have been announced about Kiev's war with Russia, but also about the trade war due to tariffs imposed by the US, writes Agence France-Presse.
The meeting of finance ministers from the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada will be held until Friday in Banff, a national park in western Canada.
There is a risk that the meeting will be undermined by the rise of divisive issues since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
The US president shocked the world in early April by imposing new tariffs on most products entering the US.
He has, in the meantime, retraced his steps a bit and concluded a trade agreement with London that has been praised as "historic".
Tariffs on imported products remain significantly higher than before Trump returned to the White House, raising fears of a general economic slowdown.
"It will be an unusual G7" because the additional tariffs have led to a cooling of relations between the allied countries, said Ananja Kumar, a researcher at the Atlantic Council think tank.
G7 members are now trying to persuade Donald Trump to drop his tariffs and are expected to target Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Besant during the meeting.
Besant has appeared to soften the president's stance several times and recently also negotiated a détente with Beijing after huge levels of reciprocal tariffs. However, he remains under pressure to deliver on the president's promises, analysts say.
According to a spokesman for Besant's ministry, he will advocate for the G7 to return to its basics and focus on resolving trade imbalances and unfair practices within and outside the G7.
A source from the American delegation said they expect a joint condemnation of overproduction in China, as a source of destabilization of other countries' industries.
The G7 meetings are chaired this year by Canada, which is among President Trump's favorite targets.
Canadian Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, who has only been in office since March, invited his Ukrainian counterpart, Serhiy Marchenko, to a meeting.
The two will hold a press conference just before the official start of the G7 finance ministers meeting.
Kiev wants to convince Washington to impose new sanctions on Russia.
However, Trump has shown spectacular rapprochement with Moscow, although he has recently shown himself to be less conciliatory, writes Agence France-Presse.
After a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin yesterday, Trump said he asked him when he intended to "end the bloodshed."
For the Europeans, one of the priorities of the meeting is for the G7 to show "unequivocal" support for Ukraine, a diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse.
A year ago, a meeting of G7 finance ministers led to progress toward an agreement on the use of interest from Russian sovereign assets frozen in retaliation for Russia's invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022.
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