Rubio could face an unfriendly reception from close G7 allies over
Trump's policies
[March 13, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE
LA MALBAIE, Canada (AP) — 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 Thursday 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 Wednesday. "Yesterday, he called our border a fictional line and
repeated his disrespectful 51st state rhetoric.”
Rubio downplayed Trump's “51st state” comments, saying Wednesday 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.
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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio disembarks from a military
airplane upon arrival at Quebec City Jean Lesage International
Airport in Quebec, Canada, March 12, 2025, as he travels to a G7
Foreign Ministers meeting. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)
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.
Rubio and other Trump administration officials have so far refused
to endorse European peacekeepers.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said G7 unity has been
critical in ensuring that “Putin to this day hasn’t achieved his war
aims in Ukraine.”
“The way to peace goes via strength and unity — a language that
Putin understands,” she said in a statement before the meeting.
___
Associated Press writers Rob Gillies in Toronto, Jill Lawless in
London, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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