Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

TWO international meetings, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Qingdao, China, and the 44th G7 Summit in Quebec, Canada, were held almost at the same time this month.

While the SCO summit concluded with “the most fruitful outcomes” in the history of the organization and served as a new landmark in its development, the G7 summit ended with huge discrepancies between U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of the other six member states. The bloc has thus been dubbed “G6+1” by Western media. “The American president may not mind being isolated, but neither do we mind signing a 6-country agreement if need be. Because these countries represent values, they represent an economic market which has the weight of history behind it and which is now a true international force,” French President Emmanuel Macron said when being interviewed.

A photograph of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders standing around a seated U.S. President Donald Trump at the summit in Quebec has also become a social media meme, with Twitter users comparing it to everything from a restaging of a classic painting to a scene from cartoon series “The Simpsons.” In the picture, Trump is seated, arms folded, while Merkel and Macron lean towards and appear to be staring at him, with Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe wearing a seemingly weary expression.

Frustrated Trump left the Quebec summit before its finish and flew to Singapore to meet with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un. He later tweeted that he had instructed the U.S. representatives not to endorse the joint communiqué released after the G7 Summit. The other six countries sharply criticized Trump for his abrupt withdrawal from the summit and refusal to endorse the joint communiqué.

The G7 Summit is an annual meeting of the world’s most advanced industrial nations — the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom — which aims to discuss crucial global issues such as world economy and climate change. Usually the G7 Summit is a stage to show and strengthen the unity and central role of the Western countries. However, this year it showed many disputes and a clear split between the United States and other six countries.

In my point of view, there are several reasons that led to the failure of the G7 Summit this year.

Firstly, just before the summit, the Trump administration announced it was imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum products from the European Union, Canada and Mexico, which provoked strong opposition from these countries. Trump’s unilateral and protectionist economic stance and policies undermine the U.S. allies’ interest, which resulted in the huge divergence during the Quebec summit.

Secondly, Trump is not satisfied with the host country Canada. He refused to put his name on the joint communiqué agreed by other leaders, saying his decision was based on the “false statement” by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Some top White House advisers also lashed out at the Canadian prime minister. “Trudeau really kind of stabbed us in the back,” Larry Kudlow, the U.S. director of National Economic Council who accompanied President Trump to the summit, said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Thirdly, Trump wants Russia to be reinstated in the G7 talks. “Russia should be in the meeting, because we need Russia at the negotiating table,” he said. Russia was thrown out of the group — then known as the G8 — in 2014 after the majority of member countries allied against Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Trump’s suggestion on Russia’s reinstatement in the bloc will particularly deepen the chill with allies such as the U.K., Germany and France which are already angry about U.S. trade tariffs, the country’s rejection of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement.

Fourthly, with the robust development of China, India and other emerging economies in the world over the past years, the G7 does not represent the most advanced industrial countries and new growth engines in the world any longer. Moreover, unlike the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that has transcended outdated concepts of the clash of civilizations, some international organizations such as G7 are still sticking to the Cold War and zero-sum mentality. Such a mentality has stopped member countries in the G7 from making joint efforts to build a community of a shared future within the organization.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)