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Biarritz G7 summit: Emmanuel Macron's strategy emerged

2019-08-27T16:58:16.326Z


Progress in the Iran conflict, a surprisingly peaceful US President and hope for an end to the trade war with China: Emmanuel Macron has succeeded in taming Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Biarritz.



Summits are usually routine events in the world of international diplomacy, choreographed like a play: the themes and agenda are already known, as well as the series of events, the women's program, and the Sherpa-negotiated final statement. It is even marked on the ground to the centimeter, who stands where on the final family photo.

At the G7 summit in Biarritz a lot was different this year: host Emmanuel Macron renounced in advance on the usual final communiqué, "to allow free and open discussions," he said. And probably also, to prevent Donald Trump from distancing himself on the return flight - it happened after the G7 meeting in Canada in 2018.

In addition, the Biarritz program left room for many unforeseen encounters. At the end of these two and a half days, people know that the open format has helped make the summit a success.

The most notable two-party meeting took place on Saturday lunchtime when Macron suggested a lunch to the US president after meeting him "by accident" in the lobby. As random as you can meet someone at a high-security event with 24-hour surveillance. Two hours later the two spoke together, without interpreters, only two. No routine event.

Unusual council with Trump

Still, in the first days of this G7 meeting, it still looked like it was going to be a pinnacle of outward appearances. A new format, many guests, especially from Africa, a picture book scenery on the Atlantic coast and finally Macron's Scoop, the lightning visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Sunday afternoon (read more here). Contentwise, there was no breakthrough for a long time.

That changed on Monday, the summit gained substance. He is not talking about a regime change in Iran, said US President Donald Trump in a public statement. So he agreed to Macron's proposal to invite the Iranian Foreign Minister to Biarritz. He just did not want to meet him, it was too early for that.

Even if one knows about the small half-life of Trump's statements, so much conciliatory action is uncommon to the greatest public enemy. Even if the Americans emphasized in background talks that they did not want to yield to the oil sanctions against Tehran.

Finally, in the final joint press conference of Trump and Macron, the French President announced that the conditions were now in place for a meeting between Iranian President Rohani and Donald Trump. He phoned Rohani in the morning. Trump said if the circumstances were right, he would be ready for a meeting.

"Our relationship has never been better"

There were also sincere condolences to the Chinese, with whom the US is in a bitter commercial dispute. He sees it as a "very positive step" that Chinese officials have reported in the evening and "want to make a deal," Trump said. The Chinese delegation previously said that they are interested in "quiet" negotiations.

Trump's personal summit balance was then downright euphoric: a "very successful" meeting had been "very friendly", great progress had been made. It had been "special, very unifying days". Then Trump raved about his lunch with Macron: "It was the best meeting we've ever had, our relationship has never been better."

Three days of Biarritz seemed to have made the US president, at least in the short term, a more peaceful person. Trump was even ready to speak on the issue of auto duties against Germany. And even with the digital tax demanded by France for American Internet companies since Biarritz relaxation suggested that it could come to an international solution within the OECD. Unless Trump's world is not another tomorrow tomorrow, and he is on the return flight from his security advisors on a harder course.

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G7 summit photo in Biarritz: When Justin with the Melania

But even the Chancellor, not necessarily known for euphoria breakouts, described it as a "big step forward" that the US has again signaled willingness to talk with Iran. Even if this is an "incredibly fragile, long and difficult" process.

Despite all the progress, many questions remained open at the meeting: Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, did not bring any new ideas for a Brexit agreement with the EU. It merely said that Johnson was trying to pay the EU only 9 billion instead of 39 billion pounds. The German delegation did not take the proposal very seriously.

Also how the new joint Sahel initiative of Angela Merkel and Macron should look like, remained strangely vague. And the actual core theme of the meeting, the fight against inequality, has been pushed out of Iran by ever new twists and turns. And even the meta subject climate fell to a large extent - even if a charter on biodiversity was adopted at the end. There was agreement among the participants to grant Brazil and its neighbors millions in support of the burning rainforests in the Amazon.

What will remain of all that - of the many promises, announcements and promised millions? As so often, you will only know that in a few weeks and months. But after all, Macron and also Merkel have announced follow-up conferences on some topics later this year. Thus, according to Macron, in September under German-French mediation there will be a new attempt to settle the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The daily Le Monde praised the daring and determination with which Macron led the summit. And in fact, the Iranian foreign minister's surprise visit on Sunday posed risks that he could have led to new upheavals with the US. But that did not happen - also because Macron knew how to hog Trump. Already before the summit he had informed Trump in a long telephone call about his Iran strategy and the state of the discussions. The update then took place at the "Working Lunch" on Saturday.

Three days before the summit, Macron had said that one should not expect too much from these international formats. Crucial in these times of crisis is to talk to everyone, really everyone.

Should deprivation actually occur in the Iran conflict, and if Chinese and Americans could agree on a peace initiative in their trade wars, these would be Biarritz's clearest merits. There is another: The summit seems to have become a working meeting in the new format. That too is good news.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-08-27

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