G7 Rubio could face an unfriendly reception from close allies over Trump’s policies

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio disembarks from a military airplane upon arrival at Quebec City

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio may be walking into unusually unfriendly territory this week when he meets his counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies — strong American allies stunned by President Donald Trump’s actions against them.

Just hours after Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs kicked in — prompting responses from the European Union and Canada and threatening to ignite full-scale trade wars with close U.S. partners — Rubio arrived at the scenic Quebec town of La Malbaie on the St. Lawrence River for two days of talks starting today [Macau time] with the top diplomats of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. All of them have been angered by the new American president’s policies.

Rubio will likely be hearing a litany of complaints about Trump’s decisions from once-friendly, like-minded countries in the G7 — notably host Canada, to which Trump has arguably been most antagonistic with persistent talk of it becoming the 51st U.S. state, additional tariffs and repeated insults against its leadership.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, the official host who will see each participant separately, said that “in every single meeting, I will raise the issue of tariffs to coordinate a response with the Europeans and to put pressure on the Americans.”

“The only constant in this unjustifiable trade war seems to be President Trump’s talk of annexing our country through economic coercion,” Joly said. “Yesterday, he called our border a fictional line and repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric.”

Rubio downplayed Trump’s “51st state” comments, saying that the president was only expressing what he thought would be a good idea.

The G7 grouping “is not a meeting about how we’re going to take over Canada,” Rubio said, noting that they would focus on Ukraine issues and other common topics.

Facing allies as tariffs take hold

On tariffs, Rubio said G7 partners should understand that these are a “policy decision” by Trump to protect American competitiveness.

“I think it is quite possible that we could do these things and at the same time deal in a constructive way with our allies and friends and partners on all the other issues that we work together on,” Rubio told reporters on a refueling stop in Ireland as he headed to Canada from talks with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia. “And that’s what I expect out of the G7 and Canada.”

Asked if he expected a difficult reception from his counterparts, Rubio brushed the question aside: “I don’t know, should I be? I mean, they’ve invited us to come. We intend to go. The alternative is to not go. I think that would actually make things worse, not better.”

Rubio notably skipped a meeting of G20 foreign ministers — a bigger but less powerful group that includes developing nations — last month in South Africa because of his concerns that the agenda, which included climate change and diversity, did not align with Trump administration policies.

The agenda for the G7 meeting includes discussions on China and the Indo-Pacific; Ukraine and Europe; stability in the Americas; the Middle East; maritime security; Africa; and China, North Korea, Iran and Russia.

Discussing peace in Ukraine

Rubio and Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, had been in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier in the week securing a potentially huge win for the administration — a possible ceasefire to end the Russia-Ukraine war, an issue that galvanized the G7 since even before the conflict began.

Armed with Ukraine’s acceptance of the proposal for a 30-day ceasefire but still awaiting a Russian response, Rubio can expect cautiously optimistic responses from his fellow diplomats.

Yet, Trump’s apparent desire to draw Russian President Vladimir 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. They united behind Ukraine, with large amounts of military assistance and punishing economic sanctions against Moscow, after the invasion began in February 2022.

Russia was thrown out of the G8 after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Among international groupings, the G7 — whose members, with the exception of Japan, are all NATO allies — had been the toughest on Russia.

At the last G7 foreign ministers meeting before the 2022 invasion, members warned Russia in a joint statement in December 2021 of “massive consequences” should it attack Ukraine. Three months later, they coordinated to impose sweeping financial, travel and other sanctions on Moscow.

Since Trump’s election, that appears to be changing, at least from the U.S. side.

Rubio said his goal was not to antagonize Russia as it considers the ceasefire proposal “by issuing statements that are abrasive in any way.” He noted that all of the sanctions against Russia remain in place but that new threats of action could be counterproductive to getting Putin on board with the U.S. peace plan.

That throws into question hopes that the G7 can unify around a common statement condemning Russia.

Britain, along with France, has been spearheading efforts to set up a “coalition of the willing” to help safeguard a future ceasefire in Ukraine, including with troops on the ground. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — who has said the plan will only work with U.S. security guarantees to back it up — plans to host a virtual meeting of about two dozen countries Saturday to discuss progress. MATTHEW LEE, LA MALBAIE, MDT/AP