What lies beneath the tight-lipped smiles of this year's G7 'family photo' in Italy?
Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and senior columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Read moreCNN Opinion.
CNN —
The annual G7 summit, a gathering of leaders of some of the world’s wealthiest democracies, used to be a staid, predictable affair. Like-minded leaders would come together, usually in picturesque settings, to fine-tune their strategies, reaffirm their shared values and strengthen their friendship.
Frida Ghitis
Much has changed since those days. But one tantalizing bit has not: the ‘family photo’; the sometimes-stiff, often revealingglimpse ofthe tensions that may have remained concealed behind the carefully choreographed event.
This year, as President Joe Biden arrives in charming Puglia, Italy, to meet with the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and the UK,plus the presidents of both the European Council and European Commission– along with special guests including Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – expect the photos to expose subtle seams in the event.
If family photo albums offer a look at the twists and turns in private lives, G7 summits have created historic photo collections, snapshots in time that tell the story of Western democracies confronting challenges, even from their own members.
This year’s photo – against a Mediterranean-flavored backdrop of olive trees and warm stone – still manages to radiate the stress of the moment.Times are difficult for the majority of these leaders. The future is uncertain for their careers, their alliance and the world. They seem grim, yet determined.
The 2024 summit comes amid intensifying political turmoil—just days after a European Parliament election that left the centrist leaders of France and Germanygravely woundedpolitically,with the far right on the ascendence. It will be fascinating to see how the images make visible the new stresses.
Consider previous years.
Tensions were about to explode in 2018, when G7 leaders met in Canada. In the group photo they strained to appear relaxed, but any forced smiles no doubt collapsed after the shutter went silent. The summit was nothing short of a disaster.Then-US President DonaldTrump hadtweeted insults against the host, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, amid disagreements on trade. “Very dishonest and weak,” he called him in one of many Twitter posts.
Behind the smiles and waves, a fraught 2018 G7 summit in Canada.
Butthe picture that told the story most eloquently, most memorably, had Trump sitting with hisarms folded across his chest, German Chancellor Angela Merkel standing in front of him, her hands on the table, leaning toward the US president, with the other world leaders surrounding them, hoping Merkel would prevail on Trump not to toss out the work of the meeting—which he ultimately did.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel deliberates with US president Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 2018 G7 summit in Canada.
Trump left before the summit was over,refusing to signthe traditional joint communique.
After the 2018 disaster, the group decided to do away with the communique for 2019 only,lest Trump sabotage it.
Three years earlier,the contrast couldn’t have been sharper with former and future US presidents. Among the iconic photos there’sthen-USPresident BarackObama in the Bavarian Alpsin 2015, on a bench, his arms resting widely before a breathtaking scenery, listening to an animated Merkel expound on her views.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel chats with a relaxed US President Barack Obama outside during the 2015 G7 summit in southern Germany.
A decade earlier, President George W. Bush gave an unrequestedbackrubto Merkel, who seemed less than thrilled.Comediansmocked Bush, but Merkel later told CNN it was a “kind gesture at the time,” a sign of friendship.
Incredibly, that 2006 summit happened in St Petersburg, Russia. The host was Russian President Vladimir Putin, invited in 1997 to join what became the G8 during a time of post-Cold War optimism.
Russian President Vladimir Putin drives US President George W. Bush to a joint news conference during the G8 summit in 2006, held in St. Petersburg.
It was short lived.In 2014, after Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, Russia was suspended. The G8 reverted to G7. (Trump triedto bringPutinback.)
The 2020 gatheringwas supposed to happen in the US; Trump even suggested holding itat one of his golf clubs. Covid forced the summit’s cancelation; a reminder thatthe unexpected can and does happen.
The next year brought one of the strangest family photos, a2021 Covid-era summit. The leaders stood several feet apart, but the distance did little to hide the relief of allies welcoming the change of leadership in Washington.
“The United States is back,” Biden told Europe and the world. (“Back, but until when?” Macron reportedly replied.) Thepalpable warmthwas evident in the images.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (center) holds court during a socially-distanced G7 family photo in the UK, in 2021.
The relief of the allies was a reflection of a wider sentiment. A Pew survey of 12 countries, including G7 members, found that confidence in US leadershipsuddenly rocketedfrom a median of 17% under Trump to 75%with Biden.
The euphoria of 2021, however, did not last.
In early 2022, Russialaunched its full-scale invasion of*ckraine. The war is just one of the grave threats facing G7 leaders that come together in the belief that synchronizing their policies in support of global prosperity and stability makes them more effective, more likely to succeed.
A few years before she stepped downas chancellor,Merkelwarned of dark forceson the rise. She was talking about the growing support for the far right in Germany, and the surge in antisemitic incidents there.
That premonition seems particularly poignant this week after thefar-rightAlternative for Deutschland (AfD) party, whose members repeatbanned Nazi slogansandwhichhasclose ties to the Kremlin,finished secondinGermany’s European Parliamentary elections, ahead of the governing coalition. In France, the picture was similarly dire, after President EmmanuelMacron’s centrist party was trounced by the far right, prompting his risky call fora snapparliamentary election.
And,all thisin the midst of one of the most consequential elections in the history of the United States — one with enormous ramifications for US allies and for the world — including a candidate who has expressedadmiration for autocrats, says he will be a dictatoronlyonday oneand has shown little interest in nurturing ties withdemocratic allies.
First Lady Melania Trump greets Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau with a kiss on the cheek before a group photo at the G7 summit in Biarritz.
Ironically, this year’s summit’s host is Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is basking in a series ofsuccesses, making Italy — with its history of unstable governments — seem one of the most stable G7 governments.
Meloni, from the Brothers of Italy party, a successor to the original fascists, haspivoted to the centersince taking office in 2022. Once a Euroskeptic and an admirer of Putin,shenow says the summit will focus on “the defense of therules-based international system,” and on “Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine.”
Meloni remains a staunch rightist, with aspirations to lead Europe in a new direction. But so far, the greatest fears about her premiership have not materialized.
The G7 will also address migration, a top agenda item for the right, as well as the conflicts in the Middle East, the need to control Artificial Intelligence, climate change and other pressing issues.
In the end, the leaders will show their agreement with a communiqueevery oneofthem will sign, with full unity, and warm handshakes.
But the deeper, more nuanced story of this G7 summit, as in others, may come through most sharply not in the signed documents — but in the photographs, theseoften awkwardly stagedglimpses of the human beings who lead nations.
