On the eve of the summit of leaders of the G7 group, which will be held in Sicily in may of this year, foreign Ministers and energy Ministers held their meeting in Italy — in Lucca and in Rome, respectively — which within two days was discussed geopolitical events in the world.
Here’s what was known about the discussions held:
The G7 group takes a hard stance against Syria. Perhaps due to the fact that this summit took place after the American attack on airbase in Syria, the majority of interviews on the first day of his work was focused on how to make Russia stop supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The British foreign Minister, Boris Johnson, recently canceled his visit to Moscow, proposed to impose new sanctions against Russia for its involvement in Syrian Affairs. Johnson also said that the G7 group needs to ask Tillerson to put pressure on his Russian counterpart foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, when they will speak next week in Moscow.
“We are trying to give Rex Tillerson very clear mandate, because the West, the United Kingdom, all our allies here speak Russian: “it’s your choice — stay with this guy, stay together with this tyrant, or work with us to search for better solutions,” said Johnson in an interview with reporters.
The Telegraph reported that the G7 group can offer the restoration of Russia’s membership in the club as a carrot to remove Russia from Syria, although Russia expelled from the G8, not because of Syria but because of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. But it does not seem that such a proposal will make an impression on Russia. “Return to a pseudo attempt to resolve the crisis, repeating the mantra whereby Assad needs to resign, will not help to cope with the existing problems” — said Monday the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Unable to agree among themselves, all the Ministers of energy? No, you can’t. On the second day of their summit, the energy Ministers of the G7 countries were unable to reach agreement on climate change. According to presiding at the summit of the Italian Minister of economic development Carlo calenda (Carlo Calenda), it happened due to the fact that the United States “maintained its position” regarding the adopted at the Paris climate agreement. Apparently, the trump split on the question of whether to leave or not to leave the Paris agreement. Perhaps the members of the new administration will simply ignore it. And until they make the final decision, the G7 group will also remain divided.
The United States occupies a special position. The group G7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. Although all seven members of the group were able to agree that Assad is bad, the United States nevertheless occupy a special position — not only on the issue of climate change, but also on such issues as trade. And Syria may not be as strong “glue” to bind together all members of the club. While Washington insists that defeating Islamic state (banned in Russia organization — approx. ed) continues to be a top priority, but the administration does not give any signals regarding the existence of a wider strategy to end the war and to limit Russian participation.
