Trump to meet Middle East partners on sidelines of G7 in France
The meeting from Jun 15 to 17 comes at a time of growing tensions between the US and many of its largest economic and security partners
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US President Donald Trump will meet with US partners in the Middle East at the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in France in the week starting Jun 15, underscoring the outsized role the war in Iran continues to play as European allies grapple with the global economic fallout.
The president will hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of France, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt as well as India, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters on the upcoming trip on the condition of anonymity. India and the Middle Eastern countries are not part of the G7.
The US and Iran are closing in on an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which could be signed as early as Sunday (Jun 14) on the sidelines of the summit.
The Trump administration believes it has a strong deal, one of the US officials said, adding that there are many actions that other G7 member nations can take once the agreement with Iran moves forward.
The president is expected to focus on economic development and security, supply chain resilience, artificial intelligence, regulatory streamlining and energy abundance, the officials said.
Tensions with partners
The meeting at Evian-les-Bains from Jun 15 to 17 comes at a time of growing tensions between the US and many of its largest economic and security partners.
The war delivered a global energy shock with Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for oil and gas shipments, roiling financial markets, causing gasoline prices to spike and raising fears about the impact on global growth. Trump has lashed out at European allies for not doing more to help open the strait, even again floating the prospect of the US exiting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato).
Asked about concerns that the US may pull back on some of its defence commitments in Europe, including reducing the number of aircraft and warships as part of the Nato alliance, officials said they were happy with some of the burden-shifting to European countries and would like to see more.
Trump also is pushing ahead with efforts to rebuild his tariff wall after a US court setback in 2026, further straining economic ties and fuelling uncertainty for major trading partners that already have deals with the US.
The G7 gathering, bringing together the leaders of the US, France, Germany, the UK, Canada, Italy and Japan as well as the European Union, is expected to address trade broadly – including with China – as well as critical minerals sourcing, artificial intelligence and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
US officials told reporters on Saturday that they did not expect any trade-related breakthroughs with Canada or India during the summit.
European leaders are eager to use the three-day summit to quell tensions and press Trump to get on board with plans for new peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. The UK, France and Germany want Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire with the current front lines as the “starting point for negotiations” and robust security guarantees for Ukraine.
At the end of the summit on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron will host Trump for a separate dinner at Versailles Palace outside Paris, keyed to the 250th anniversary of American independence, Macron’s office said in a statement on Saturday.
Versailles is a symbol of French-American friendship, according to the statement.
Trump has not scheduled an official meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, but one of the officials noted the Ukrainian president would participate in a working session with the G7 leaders.
Trump has long had a fraught relationship with the G7 grouping of major economies. The 2025 summit of the group in Canada was also a tense affair and the president left the meeting early to manage an earlier conflict between Israel and Iran, eventually joining attacks targeting Teheran’s nuclear programme. BLOOMBERG
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