Italy backs G-7 action on climate, migrants

GARY COHN: He learned how important it is for the United States to show leadership. The guests included also German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s husband, Joachim Sauer, who rarely joins his wife overseas, Shinzo Abe’s wife, Akie Abe, and Italian host Paolo Gentiloni’s wife, Emanuela Mauro.

There are four new leaders, including Trump, at the summit this year.

“(This declaration) is also a strong message of solidarity to the United Kingdom after what happened in Manchester“, Italian Prime Minister Gentiloni said as the document was passed around the table, where each of the leaders signed it in turn.

Leaders of seven wealthy democracies have reached a deal to give the Trump administration more time to tell them whether the United States plans to stay in the Paris climate agreement.

He said Trump allowed the other leaders to speak before voicing his own opinions of the subject.

May, in Italy for her first G7 meeting since becoming prime minister a year ago, was set to urge the world’s major industrialised nations to encourage technology firms to stop militants moving “from the battlefield to the internet”.

Trump, asked by reporters in Taormina whether he had accused Germany of being “very bad” on trade, did not respond.

“There is one open question, which is the US position on the Paris climate accords”, Gentiloni added.

However, according to one of Trump’s top aides, thanks to the G-7 summit, the American President became “smarter” on the issue of climate change, and is “evolving”, CNN reported.

Some of the spouses got a helicopter’s eye view of Mount Etna, an active volcano near Catania, but not Mrs. Trump, who arrived separately in her own minivan.

On climate change, the effort to keep Trump onboard will focus on convincing his team that developing renewable energy forms and technology to facilitate cleaner fossil fuels can be drivers of the job-creating growth that he says is his priority.

Trump’s White House counsel further complicated the debate by raising legal concerns over the possibility of reducing U.S. carbon reduction commitments.

They will also discuss security cooperation following Monday’s suicide bombing at a concert in northern England that killed 22 people and was allegedly carried out by a young Islamist militant of Libyan descent who grew up in Britain.

While Canada, Italy, Germany, France, Britain and Japan confirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement, Trump – who promised during the campaign to abandon the accord – had not yet made up his mind, said Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said the group’s leaders “sometimes have very different views” on topics such as climate change and trade, “but our role as the EU is to do everything to maintain the unity of the G-7 on all fronts”.

He also tweeted, “Big G7 meetings today”.

However, the absence of Russian Federation and China may make Trump question the G7’s continued relevance, as reported by The Guardian.

In April, G7 foreign ministers talked tough, but dismissed a British push to threaten Moscow with extra sanctions over its continued support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We want to have an open dialogue”, Cohn said.

Trump, who favours “America First” trade policies and has previously claimed that the concept of global warming was created by China, is expected face pressure from allies eager to promote free trade and safeguard the landmark Paris climate agreement of 2015.

Leaders from the G-7 countries were expected to gather at the San Domenico Palace Hotel on Saturday morning.