A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump has arrived in Kananaskis at a lodge in the Canadian Rockies for this year's G7.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It is the annual summit for the leaders of advanced economies, and this year's comes at a tense time. The conflict between Israel and Iran has escalated. The Ukraine Russia war continues. And Trump has imposed tariffs on all of his fellow G7 countries.
MARTÍNEZ: NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben traveled to Canada last night with the president. She joins us now from Calgary, Alberta. So, Danielle, what's on the agenda for the next couple of days?
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Well, Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney - he's the host of this meeting - he's laid out a few really broad areas. Among them, he's listed boosting the response to wildfires, building infrastructure and using AI for economic growth. Now, Trump, for his part, has his own priorities. His White House has said that he wants to talk about migration, critical minerals, trade and drug smuggling, among other things. But given the timing of this meeting, the Iran-Israel conflict, like you just mentioned, that's sure to be a big part of the conversation - and, also, Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. On that note, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going to be at the summit, and the White House says Trump will have some time to meet with Zelenskyy in the next couple of days.
MARTÍNEZ: So I remember back in his first term, President Trump had some pretty memorable clashes with his fellow leaders at these...
KURTZLEBEN: Correct.
MARTÍNEZ: ...G7 summits. Yeah. So what's - who was behind all that?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, some of it was personal. I mean, for example, look back to 2018, when Trump called then-Canada prime minister Justin Trudeau dishonest and weak, and that was inspired by trade issues, is what caused that argument. Trump also argued in the past with former German chancellor Angela Merkel. But stepping back from those personality clashes, there have just been different values between Trump and other G7 leaders. Trump's team wanted narrowly focused G7 agendas, focusing heavily on economics. Meanwhile, the other leaders wanted to talk about more expansive topics, like climate change and gender equality, in addition to economics. Now, at the end of these summits, they usually wrap all of that together in a big joint statement called a communique, but this year, they're scrapping that approach. So I talked to Kelly Ann Shaw. She was Trump's lead negotiator in 2019. She said this.
KELLY ANN SHAW: In many respects, it's an improvement, right? Because last year, if you look at the communique, it was 36 pages of empty promises and platitudes. It doesn't move the needle.
KURTZLEBEN: Now, again, she's making the Trumpist argument there, but other G7 leaders have seen the summit as a venue for global governance and just for consensus on big problems.
MARTÍNEZ: So do you expect any friction between Trump and other leaders this week?
KURTZLEBEN: I mean, there could be on a few topics. One is Trump's repeated statements about making Canada - again, the host country - the 51st state. So that's...
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, that.
KURTZLEBEN: That...
MARTÍNEZ: I forgot about.
KURTZLEBEN: Yeah. That's big.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Yeah.
KURTZLEBEN: French president Emmanuel Macron sent a message during a stop he made on the way to this G7. He stopped at Greenland. That's another place that Trump has said he would like to annex. And that, of course, is part of Denmark. One more area that they may talk about is Russia - or they will likely talk about. Fundamentally, the G7 has not been friendly to Russia because of its actions in Ukraine, but Trump is friendly with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Capping all that off is trade. Trump has tariffed goods from nearly every country, including all his G7 partners. And he has said he will be talking tariff deals this week.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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