G7 Diplomats Meet in Canada on Tariffs 03/14 06:03

   Top diplomats from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies held a first 
day of talks in Canada on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump's trade and 
foreign policies have thrown the bloc's once solid unity into disarray. Trump 
then made new comments antagonizing Secretary of State Marco Rubio's Canadian 
hosts.

   LA MALBAIE, Canada (AP) -- Top diplomats from the Group of 7 industrialized 
democracies held a first day of talks in Canada on Thursday as U.S. President 
Donald Trump's trade and foreign policies have thrown the bloc's once solid 
unity into disarray. Trump then made new comments antagonizing Secretary of 
State Marco Rubio's Canadian hosts.

   The two-day meeting opened just after Trump threatened to impose 200% 
tariffs on European wine and other alcohol if the European Union doesn't back 
down from retaliating against U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs with a levy on 
American whiskey.

   The escalating trade war added to uncertainty over relations between the 
U.S. and its closest allies, which have already been strained by Trump's 
position on Russia's war in Ukraine.

   It also meant that Rubio, on his first official trip to Canada and his first 
to a G7 event, was likely to hear a litany of complaints as he met with the 
foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

   All of them have been angered by the new American president's policies, and 
they smiled stiffly in frigid temperatures as they posed for a group photo at a 
snowy resort in La Malbaie, Quebec, on the St. Lawrence River.

   "Peace and stability is at the top of our agenda, and I look forward to 
discussing how we continue to support Ukraine in the face of Russia's illegal 
aggression," Canadian Foreign Minister Mlanie Joly said as she gaveled the 
meetings into session.

   Rubio had met earlier with Joly, arriving in Quebec late Wednesday just 
hours after Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs kicked in -- prompting irate 
responses from the European Union and Canada. Neither Rubio nor Joly spoke, and 
neither the State Department nor the Canadian foreign ministry issued normally 
customary readouts of the discussion.

   In fact, there was little, if any, information to emerge about the 
closed-door discussions on Thursday that were punctuated by uncertainty over 
Joly's planned depature for Ottawa on Friday before the G7 meeting had been 
scheduled to close to attend soon-to-be new Canadian Prime Minister Mark 
Carney's first Cabinet meeting.

   But, en route to Canada from Saudi Arabia, where he had won agreement from 
Ukraine for a 30-day ceasefire in the war, Rubio had dismissed suggestions that 
he would face an uncomfortable reception from this counterparts.

   Canada signals it won't back down

   Joly, however, had made it clear that Canada, at least, would not back down. 
Trump has arguably been most antagonistic toward Canada with persistent talk of 
it becoming the 51st U.S. state, additional tariffs and persistent insults 
against its leadership, much of which he repeated on Thursday in comments at 
the White House.

   Ahead of the talks, Joly had said she would use every meeting at the G7 to 
raise Trump's tariffs and coordinate a response. She also noted that Trump had 
continued to press "his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric."

   For his part, Trump doubled down on the anti-Canada rhetoric during an Oval 
Office meeting on Thursday with NATO chief Mark Rutte. "To be honest with you, 
Canada only works as a state," Trump said before going on to say that he's not 
going to change his mind on the tariffs he's imposing on Canada. "We've been 
ripped off for years," he said. "We're not going to bend."

   Rubio had downplayed Trump's earlier comments, saying the president was only 
expressing what he thought would be a good idea. The G7 "is not a meeting about 
how we're going to take over Canada," he 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"

   "We have learned altogether in these shaky geopolitical times ... especially 
in moments when your heart is really beating, it's important to keep calm," 
Baerbock told reporters. She noted that the G7 has been "a powerhouse ... for 
freedom, for our common understanding of peace."

   Rubio faces 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 had told reporters on 
Wednesday. "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."

   The agenda for the G7 meeting included 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 30-day ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, an 
issue that galvanized the G7 since even before the conflict began. Trump's 
special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived Thursday in Russia for talks with officials 
on the proposal.

   Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he agrees in principle 
with the U.S. proposal but that the terms need to be worked out, emphasizing it 
should pave the way to lasting peace.

   "So the idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it," Putin said at 
a news conference in Moscow. "But there are issues that we need to discuss, and 
I think that we need to discuss it with our American colleagues and partners."

   There was no immediate comment from G7 officials to Putin's comments, 
although participants were expected to be cautiously optimistic.

   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.

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