Donald Trump left other G7 world leaders waiting before turning up to the meeting and announcing, “I’m the boss.”
His claim was met with laughter from the other world leaders as the US president grinned. The meeting came as the other leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK, threw their support Trump’s tentative agreement with Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and further extend a shaky ceasefire.
In a declaration issued overnight, the leaders called the deal a “historic opportunity to prevent Iran from acquiring any nuclear weapon and tackling the threats related to its regional and ballistic activities.” The leaders said that they were “ready to contribute to its implementation,” although neither the White House nor Iran has released the text of the agreement.
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The G7 leaders were closing the formal talks of the leading industrial democracies at a lakeside resort in the French Alps on Wednesday with sessions on the future of artificial intelligence and fostering economic growth.
They discussed concerns that China is flooding export markets with subsidized products, unfairly out-competing their own industries and destroying jobs. Leaders of India, South Korea, Kenya and Brazil also joined the meeting.
The U.S. leader later plans to make a stop for a glitzy dinner at the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris before he jets back to Washington.
But first, Trump finds himself trying to quell skepticism about the Iran agreement that U.S. and Iranian officials are set to formally sign at a ceremony on Friday at a stunning resort on Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne. He also faces jitteriness from key ally Israel about ending the conflict under these terms.
“Here’s what it says: Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. It won’t have one to buy, to develop – it will not have a nuclear weapon. And I would say that’s about 99.9% of what I wanted,” he said.
While G7 leaders gave it their backing, Trump still has to sell the deal to some members of his own party who doubt it will defang Iran’s nuclear program. At the same time, he faces an anxious international community looking for him to follow through on his promise that the deal will reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil tanker traffic, and keep it open.
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The leaders meeting in the Alps said that an international maritime mission led by France and the U.K. “can play an important role to facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz by protecting merchant vessels, reassuring commercial shipping operators, and supporting verification that all mines are removed.”
Before the Iran war, a fifth of all oil and natural gas traded passed through the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime chokepoint that Iran has effectively shuttered since the first days of the conflict that began on Feb. 28.
