As this year’s G7 gets underway in Taormina, Italy, the world might be expecting to hear great announcements and declarations from the leaders of Italy, US, Germany, Canada, France, Japan and the UK on the topics of famine, refugees, climate change, and other issues that plague the world.
But those people would be wrong — no game-changing agreements or sweeping changes are expected to be announced, for a few reasons.
First, half of the world leaders attending the summit are newly elected to their positions. So the months, if not years, of discussions and negotiations, that usually take place ahead of the G7, haven’t taken place this year, as new governments have just gotten settled in.
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Second, several of the leaders in attendance are facing massive challenges at home. The UK’s Theresa May is in the throes of a snap election, which she called amid Brexit negotiations. The US’s Donald Trump has been dogged for months by the various investigations into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Germany’s Angela Merkel is facing an election in a few short months and is hosting this year’s G20 summit.
So without any major policy wins expected, that really means the G7 is just a great excuse these world leaders to meet each other and see how they get along. They can figure out who’s friendly with who, which leaders can’t stand each other, and so on, to get a sense of how their countries might all work together in the future.
And for us at home, that means we get to watch. Much like people gawk at "The Bachelor" each week as a rose is handed out at the end of each episode, Global Citizen imagines the G7 world leaders court freshly elected French President Emmanuel Macron.