The return of meetings in the flesh? Donald Trump finally wants to organize a G7 summit in June, seeing it as “great symbol“from the start of a return to normal.
After announcing in mid-March that the meeting would take place this year by videoconference due to the coronavirus, the American president spoke on Wednesday of the possibility of reunion at Camp David, a place loaded with symbols.
With less than six months to go before the presidential election, the Republican billionaire insists on the need to reopen the economy as quickly as possible and tirelessly promises a year 2021 “unbelievable“.
“Now that our country has started its (return to greatness), I plan to reprogram the G7, on the same date or more, at Camp David, legendary place“, he tweeted.
“The other members (of the G7) are also starting their return. It would be a great symbol for everyone. Standardization!“.
Such a meeting, if it took place, would allow Donald Trump, criticized for the slowness of his reaction to the Covid-19, to reposition himself at the center of the game on the international scene.
It would also offer him a choice platform in the standoff he engaged with China, which he accuses of not having reacted quickly enough when the virus appeared in the city of Wuhan and of having failed to transparency.
His French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, with whom he spoke by phone, was open to such a proposal “if sanitary conditions allow“.
“The G7 is a major meeting“, underlined the French presidency which organized the previous edition, in Biarritz in August 2019.
With or without masks?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has intentionally remained ambiguous about her intentions. “Whatever form the G7 meeting takes, a video conference or whatever, I will definitely fight for multilateralism“she said in Berlin.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, was cautious about this hypothesis, stressing the importance of studying “what measures would be put in place“and”expert recommendations“.
The organization of such a summit, the first of its kind since the appearance of the new coronavirus that has killed more than 320,000 people worldwide, raises many practical questions.
Would the size of delegations be drastically limited? Would all leaders be expected to wear a mask, a practice that Donald Trump has so far refused to comply with?
If this scenario were confirmed, Camp David, located in a mountainous region of the state of Maryland, not far from Washington, would have a significant advantage in time of coronavirus: it is isolated and very easy to secure.
This official resort residence of the presidents of the United States has often been used for high-level international discussions.
It was there that the last G7 organized in the United States took place in 2012 under the presidency of Barack Obama.
The place is also famous for the Camp David agreements, signed in September 1978 under the mediation of Jimmy Carter by the Egyptian president Anouar el-Sadate and the Israeli Prime Minister Menahem Begin. These agreements established the conditions for peace between Egypt and Israel.
An informal group of major powers created in 1975, the G7 brings together the United States, Canada, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Transformed to G8 in the late 1990s with the addition of Russia, it returned to its original format after the latter’s suspension due to the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula.
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