U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday told a roomful of global leaders "I'm the boss", as he and other G7 leaders acknowledged Ukraine's improved battlefield fortunes with a unified pledge of support and fresh sanctions against Russia.
Trump's comment - a tongue-in-cheek admission of an unspoken truth hanging over the June 15-17 summit of the Group of Seven powers in the French resort of Evian-les-Bains - followed a joint leaders' statement that could bolster Kyiv's growing leverage in potential peace talks with Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his allies came to the G7 hoping to impress upon Trump that Ukraine's fightback is delivering results, and that Russia is in no position to be dictating terms for any peace deal.
The joint statement and comments from leaders suggest Trump has warmed to Zelenskiy's argument after years of scepticism.
However, any hopes of strongarming Moscow into peace talks still rely on Trump commitments, which can be elusive. It was unclear if bilateral Trump-Zelenskiy talks would take place, and it also remains to be seen if Washington will allow waivers to lapse on sanctions restricting Russian oil exports, now that he has secured a preliminary Iran deal.
"I'm the boss," Trump told G7 chiefs and reporters as he arrived to take his seat at a session on global economic security, where leaders were due to discuss supply chains for critical minerals and macroeconomic imbalances.
Trump on Tuesday heralded a "very good" meeting with Zelenskiy and other G7 leaders.
"There has been a change in position on the part of the United States and President Trump," Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters. "There is a position that is harder toward Russia and more realistic, in our view, of the situation on the ground of the war."
G7 chiefs also welcomed the preliminary peace deal between the United States and Iran - which Trump signed on the eve of the summit - and said they were ready to contribute to its implementation.
They said they would make efforts to diversify energy supply routes to reduce dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blocked for most of the duration of its war with the U.S., and increase stocks.
France is now pushing partners to sign a joint statement on critical minerals that could include measures to help the West reduce its reliance on China and shield investors from countermeasures and dumping, diplomats said.
China spooked the global economy last year when some industries nearly ground to a halt after Beijing imposed export curbs on permanent magnets made of rare earths.
"We are negotiating texts that are significant on critical minerals and, as a consequence, on economic sovereignty," a French presidency official said ahead of the summit.
Measures under discussion in recent months have included price supports, market standards, subsidies and guaranteed purchases, as well as ways to scale up private investment in critical mineral supply chains outside China. Any measures announced at the G7 are likely to be only first steps.
The 2025 restrictions were the latest in Beijing's gradual tightening of its niche material and battery metal exports. It has also curbed American companies' access to tungsten and antimony, among others.
Western powers are racing to secure offtake from mines and build up processing and recycling capacity, but it will take years to dent China's dominant position, which was decades in the making.
The United States in early 2026 proposed a trading bloc for critical minerals. However, countries are at odds over how this bloc could operate, especially in the context of the White House's "America First" agenda.
G7 leaders were also due to discuss how to rebalance global trade and address "predatory competition", mainly from China. France summarises the imbalances as: "China produces too much, the U.S. consumes too much and the Europeans invest too little."
Alarm is growing in Europe at China's trade surplus and its move up the value chain, in what analysts describe as a "second China shock" following its dominance of low-value industries in the 2000s. The surplus stands at €360 billion euros ($400 billion).
French President Emmanuel Macron sought to engage China ahead of the summit in a last-ditch effort at cooperation. Beijing rejects EU claims of unfair subsidies and has repeatedly vowed "strong" countermeasures to the EU's proposed "Buy European" and revised tech sovereignty rules.
EU leaders separately plan to debate tougher trade defence measures, and a more systematic use of them, against surging imports from China at a summit in Brussels on Thursday.
G7 leaders were also due to discuss AI over lunch on Wednesday, including the liability of bots and agents, and how AI presents truth and falsehood. OpenAI founder Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei were expected to attend.
Reuters
