A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
It's President Trump's first full day at the G7 summit.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Qatar and the UAE are not part of that group, but their top officials will be meeting with Trump today - key stakeholders to the deal he just came to with Iran. But as much as the European members of the G7 want the war to end, they are just as focused on getting Russia to negotiate an end to its war in Ukraine.
MART脥NEZ: NPR's White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is here. So, Danielle, what has the president done so far at the conference?
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Well, yesterday he met with French President Emmanuel Macron. And this morning, he and other G7 leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And while Iran has understandably gotten a lot of attention in the run-up to the summit, leaders at the G7 have been eager to talk Ukraine. Just this week, Russia fired dozens of missiles at Ukraine, killing 11 and sparking a fire on one of Ukraine's religious landmarks. And that all just came hours after Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy. And ahead of the G7 amid all that, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said one goal would be to increase the pressure on Russia in order to get Putin to negotiate.
But of course, the topic of Iran will be central at this G7 meeting as well. Like you said, Trump will meet with leaders from Qatar and the UAE, both of which had targets Iran attacked during this war. And then after all that, there's a bigger meeting between G7 leaders and Middle Eastern leaders.
MART脥NEZ: So what's the reaction been to the Iran deal there at the G7?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, Macron praised it in brief remarks yesterday, calling the agreement important in that it deals with the nuclear issue. But of course, we don't know how that will shake out in further U.S.-Iran talks. It's also possible that the leaders of G7 countries - that's a group that includes Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Japan - that they're going to praise Trump this week, even while they're pretty frustrated with him. I mean, this war did hurt their economies, after all. And additionally, we did see Trump get upset when some European countries didn't help out with the war to his liking, such as allowing the U.S. to use their airspace.
But zooming out, as our colleague Franco Ordo帽ez has reported, Trump's repeated antagonism toward European nations, whether it's regarding NATO or Greenland or tariffs - it's pushed those countries together, making them more willing to just kind of band together and push back against the U.S., like with Iran, for example. And Macron has been one of the louder European voices calling for those nations to be a little more independent from the U.S.
MART脥NEZ: All right. So what's left on President Trump's G7 agenda?
KURTZLEBEN: Well, in addition to those meetings he still has planned, there are other big topics the White House says it wants to talk about, like AI regulation, the Ebola outbreak in Africa and critical minerals. Beyond that, Trump has a private dinner with Macron before he leaves - at the Palace of Versailles, no less - which seems like it'll be the kind of spectacle Trump really enjoys. But altogether, he just seems to have come into this summit feeling like he has a better hand because of the Iran breakthrough. But there are still a lot of challenges to discuss. Not to mention, he's just not been on the best of terms with a handful of leaders here.
As for news, one more thing. There is the possibility of more news from Trump at the end of this trip because often, at this type of summit, the president does take questions right before he leaves.
MART脥NEZ: All right. That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot.
KURTZLEBEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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