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Trump’s G-7 plan seems like a China trap for EU leaders – but one they can’t evade
Trump’s G-7 plan to invite Russia, Australia, India & South Korea, while leaving out China’s Xi Jinping, have set off alarm bells in European capitals.
JOHN FOLLAIN, ANIA NUSSBAUM and ARNE DELFS 12 June, 2020 9:15 am IST
File photo of Angela Merkel , German Chancellor, deliberating with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the official agenda on the second day of the 2018 G7 summit | Representational image | Jesco Denzel | Getty Images via Bloomberg
Rome/Paris/Berlin: European leaders are trying to avoid getting boxed in by Donald Trump’s efforts to choreograph an anti-China summit in Washington.
As host of this year’s Group of Seven meetings, the U.S. president gets to invite whomever he wants as guests. But his musings about including leaders from Russia, Australia, India and South Korea, while leaving out China’s Xi Jinping, have set off alarm bells in European capitals.
The lineup is a clear sign that Trump intends to use the meeting to ramp up his campaign against China, European diplomats said, and they are determined not to let their leaders get railroaded into playing along.
One described it as a trap, another said it was an electoral ploy as Trump seeks a second term in November. Both insisted that the European Union is seeking a more moderate line than the US and puts more of a premium on its economic ties to Beijing.
To wriggle free, and to minimize the diplomatic costs, they are using a range of tactics from stalling, to bringing out the G-7 rulebook and trying to pin the mercurial president down to a specific agenda.
But conventional diplomatic maneuvers may not be enough to constrain a U.S. leader who’s shown scant regard for protocol in the past and is likely to be in the grip of a bitter re-election campaign if and when the meeting is scheduled. Under normal circumstances, pulling out would be seen as a nuclear option likely to provoke retaliation from the U.S. With the coronavirus as a fig leaf though, it may still be a tempting option for German Chancellor Angela Merkel or France’s Emmanuel Macron.
The G-20 meeting scheduled for Saudi Arabia in November might offer another excuse. All the G-7 members will be there, as well as China, so they might suggest it was unnecessary to hold an additional session.
Trump’s idea of holding the summit at Camp David this month was already shot down by Merkel. The president wanted to bolster his claims that the U.S. economy is open for business again after the virus lockdown. But Merkel wasn’t sure that it would really be safe to travel, and Trump was pushed to postpone.
“So it might be a G-10, G-11, and it could be held after the election is over,” the president said.
But the Europeans aren’t having that either.
https://theprint.in/world/trumps-g-...or-eu-leaders-but-one-they-cant-evade/440119/
Trump’s G-7 plan to invite Russia, Australia, India & South Korea, while leaving out China’s Xi Jinping, have set off alarm bells in European capitals.
JOHN FOLLAIN, ANIA NUSSBAUM and ARNE DELFS 12 June, 2020 9:15 am IST
File photo of Angela Merkel , German Chancellor, deliberating with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the official agenda on the second day of the 2018 G7 summit | Representational image | Jesco Denzel | Getty Images via Bloomberg
Rome/Paris/Berlin: European leaders are trying to avoid getting boxed in by Donald Trump’s efforts to choreograph an anti-China summit in Washington.
As host of this year’s Group of Seven meetings, the U.S. president gets to invite whomever he wants as guests. But his musings about including leaders from Russia, Australia, India and South Korea, while leaving out China’s Xi Jinping, have set off alarm bells in European capitals.
The lineup is a clear sign that Trump intends to use the meeting to ramp up his campaign against China, European diplomats said, and they are determined not to let their leaders get railroaded into playing along.
One described it as a trap, another said it was an electoral ploy as Trump seeks a second term in November. Both insisted that the European Union is seeking a more moderate line than the US and puts more of a premium on its economic ties to Beijing.
To wriggle free, and to minimize the diplomatic costs, they are using a range of tactics from stalling, to bringing out the G-7 rulebook and trying to pin the mercurial president down to a specific agenda.
But conventional diplomatic maneuvers may not be enough to constrain a U.S. leader who’s shown scant regard for protocol in the past and is likely to be in the grip of a bitter re-election campaign if and when the meeting is scheduled. Under normal circumstances, pulling out would be seen as a nuclear option likely to provoke retaliation from the U.S. With the coronavirus as a fig leaf though, it may still be a tempting option for German Chancellor Angela Merkel or France’s Emmanuel Macron.
The G-20 meeting scheduled for Saudi Arabia in November might offer another excuse. All the G-7 members will be there, as well as China, so they might suggest it was unnecessary to hold an additional session.
Trump’s idea of holding the summit at Camp David this month was already shot down by Merkel. The president wanted to bolster his claims that the U.S. economy is open for business again after the virus lockdown. But Merkel wasn’t sure that it would really be safe to travel, and Trump was pushed to postpone.
“So it might be a G-10, G-11, and it could be held after the election is over,” the president said.
But the Europeans aren’t having that either.
https://theprint.in/world/trumps-g-...or-eu-leaders-but-one-they-cant-evade/440119/
