LA MALBAIE, QC – Top diplomats from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies agreed Friday on a joint statement expressing support for Ukraine and a U.S. ceasefire proposal in the three-year-old war even as President Donald Trump’s trade policies and taunts toward host Canada overshadowed the talks.
Despite the tensions, diplomats from the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan signed off on a final communique after hours of late-night negotiations. There were concerns that the bloc’s once solid unity had been thrown into irreversible disarray by Trump's whopping tariffs on steel and aluminum and threats for additional levies if there is any retaliation.
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Although the trade war and Trump’s repeated comments about turning Canada into the 51st state distracted from the discussions, diplomats were able to rally around his Ukraine peace plan.
What the G7 said about Ukraine and the US plan for peace
“G7 members reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity and right to exist, and its freedom, sovereignty and independence," the communique said. “G7 members called for Russia to reciprocate by agreeing to a ceasefire on equal terms and implementing it fully.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied after the meeting that the G7 support for Ukraine's territorial sovereignty strayed from the Trump administration's position, including its insistence that Ukraine must be open to ceding control of some land to Russia to get a peace deal.
“I’ve never heard President Trump say that Russia has a right to take all of Ukraine and do whatever they want there," Rubio told reporters. "So that’s not inconsistent.”
The G7 diplomats discussed, but did not detail, imposing further sanctions on Russia — including the possibility of selling seized Russian assets to fund Ukraine's defense — should Russia not accept and respect a ceasefire and providing additional support for Ukraine in that event.
In a significant change from the past, the G7 statement did not contain a specific condemnation of Russia for invading Ukraine. Rubio had said prior to the meetings that the U.S. did not see the value in antagonizing Russian President Vladimir Putin while he was considering Trump’s ceasefire proposal.
Putin said Thursday he agrees with the plan in principle, but set out a host of details that need to be clarified before it is accepted.
The G7 statement “emphasized that any ceasefire must be respected and underscored the need for robust and credible security arrangements to ensure that Ukraine can deter and defend against any renewed acts of aggression.”
Still, Trump’s apparent desire to draw Putin back into the fold — including saying he would like to see Russia rejoin the group to restore it to the G8 — continues to alarm G7 members. Russia was thrown out of the G8 after it seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Unity but also division among allies
Despite the agreement on key points, Trump's policies were front and center as the allies gathered for two days of talks at a snowy resort in La Malbaie, Quebec.
All G7 members are affected by the tariffs but perhaps none more so than Canada, the only one that borders the United States and the only one that Trump has personally antagonized with repeated derogatory comments about it becoming the 51st state.
Rubio, on his first official trip to Canada and his first to a G7 event, heard a litany of complaints as he met with his counterparts.
Many of them, notably the Japanese, appealed to Rubio to use what influence he might have with Trump to spare their country from harsh trade treatment. But Trump has said he will not relent.
"We will put maximum pressure on the Americans and, meanwhile, will work on looking for off-ramps," Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly told reporters Friday. “The Trump tariffs are going to hurt Americans. That’s our message, that’s our approach."
Rubio, who called Joly a friend, said the tariffs are not meant to be a “hostile move” against allies but are about making trade fair. Those benefiting from previous arrangements likely do “feel it is hostile to change the status quo because it’s to your benefit," he told reporters.
How a meeting between US and Canadian diplomats went
Joly said her discussion with Rubio had been “frank” — diplomatic code for “blunt.”
“I wanted to be able to have a frank conversation," Joly said. "Of course, Canada’s sovereignty is not up for debate and we had a long conversation on tariffs and trade.”
After Trump reiterated in the Oval Office on Thursday that "Canada only works as a state,” Joly stood firm.
“What I said to the secretary is that Canada’s sovereignty is not up for debate. Period," she said Friday. “There is no argument. There is no conversation about it.” She added, as if addressing him, "You are here, you respect us, you respect our sovereignty, you respect our people. Period.”
Rubio told reporters Friday that Trump “loves Canada” and has simply “made an argument for why Canada would be better off joining the United States from an economic perspective and the like. He’s made that argument repeatedly, and I think it stands for itself.”
Joly noted that many of the allies thought Trump's comments were a joke.
“I said to them this is not a joke — Canadians are anxious, Canadians are proud people, and you are here in a sovereign country, and so therefore, we don’t expect this to be even discussed, clearly not laughed at,” she said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said G7 nations should avoid panic and posted a message of support for Canada on X, featuring a photo of her and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “We’ve got your back, @melaniejoly,” she wrote. “#Canada #Solidarity."
Friday’s sessions were shortened due to Joly’s need to depart earlier than planned to attend Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s swearing-in ceremony and first Cabinet meeting.
The final communique presented common positions not only on Ukraine but on the Middle East, wars in Africa and Chinese activity in the South China Sea.
On the Middle East, the communique did not, as it has in previous years, express support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But it did recognize the need for the Palestinians to have a “political horizon” to reach their aspirations.
“All of that has united us,” British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said. “So this has been a unified conference in which we have found common ground. And I’m pleased at the effort and the sense of warmth that exists across the partners in the G7.”
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Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.