Rough seas were a fitting symbol for this week’s meeting of Group of 7 foreign ministers on the Italian island of Capri. Coast Guard ships that ferried V.I.P.s across the Gulf of Naples to the island on Wednesday swayed precariously, leaving the passengers reaching for their motion-sickness medicine — and, in some cases, their sick bags.
Though no ministers from this elite international coalition, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, were known to have lost their lunch, the global problems they confronted were enough to make even a seasoned diplomat queasy: the risk of war between Iran and Israel, the nightmare in Gaza and Ukraine’s uncertain fate.
At the luxurious Grand Hotel Quisisana, Mr. Blinken came determined to project unity within a group that includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union.
First created to help stabilize the world economy, the G7 has grown more active and ambitious in recent years, seeking to shape geopolitics and to be “a steering committee for the world’s most advanced democracies,” as Mr. Blinken put it in a closing news conference on Friday.
Mr. Blinken did not quite put it that way, although he did say the group had tried over three days “to de-escalate tensions and to de-escalate any potential conflicts.” The meetings included sessions about Gaza, where Israeli attacks have killed over 33,000 people since Hamas’s assault on Israel on Oct. 7, and the Red Sea, where the Houthi militias of Yemen have been attacking cargo ships.
The G7 threatened to strengthen the Western crackdown on Iran, demanding in a closing communiqué that “Iran and its affiliated groups cease their attacks” throughout the Middle East and saying, “We stand ready to adopt further sanctions or take other measures.”
On Iran, Mr. Blinken also told reporters that “degrading its missile and drone capabilities” was a key G7 goal. And a senior U.S. official, who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said that joint actions were in store against unnamed Iranian commercial entities.
The group also addressed the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, though it was unclear whether it had made any headway toward a cease-fire deal that would allow for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, a goal the G7 called for in its communiqué. The U.S. official said that the group had wrestled, in part, with the practical limitations of getting aid into the Palestinian territory and then distributing it across the devastated enclave of Gaza.
Ukraine was another central topic, and the ministers vowed to find new ways to support its fight against Russia. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who joined the gathering to make his case in person, practically pleaded with members of the U.S. House of Representatives to deliver for his country.
Mr. Kuleba told reporters on Thursday that the aid that Congress is considering would “literally, without exaggeration, help save Ukrainians from Russian missile slaughter.” He added, “This is a matter of death and life for thousands of people.”
He also said that his country needed more equipment like Patriot missile batteries to defend its people and its energy grid from Russian attacks.
Another U.S. official said that Mr. Blinken arrived at a meeting with Mr. Kuleba on Thursday morning with a list of specific weapon systems and the countries that the United States hoped might soon deliver them to Ukraine. Mr. Kuleba countered with a wish list of his own. The first U.S. official said that G7 nations would most likely deliver additional air-defense systems to Ukraine soon.
Mr. Blinken offered the strongest public indication yet by a U.S. official that Russian sovereign assets that were frozen in Western accounts after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine would eventually be tapped to finance Ukraine’s reconstruction. The United States supports that step, while European nations worry about legal obstacles.
“The Kremlin has called this theft,” Mr. Blinken said. “The real theft is in Ukrainian lives taken, in so much of Ukraine’s infrastructure destroyed and so much of its land seized.”
“Being able to use these Russian sovereign assets to help rebuild Ukraine is critical,” he added. “It’s also something that, one way or another, one day or another, is going to happen.”
The G7, for its part, said in a statement on Friday, “We will continue to explore all possible avenues to aid Ukraine in obtaining compensation from Russia, consistent with our respective legal systems and international law.”
Mr. Blinken also said that his counterparts were losing patience with China’s role in propping up Russia’s economy, upon which the West has imposed heavy sanctions, and its military production, although Beijing has stopped short of sending arms to Moscow.
“If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, you can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Mr. Blinken said. He is expected to visit Beijing in the coming weeks.
After the event wrapped up on Friday, Mr. Blinken’s motorcade sped down the mountainous island of Capri and past gawking tourists to the harbor. This time, he rode on a speedy Italian security-services vessel equipped with machine guns. The water remained choppy, but the trip back to the mainland was much easier.
Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/world/europe/g7-blinken-israel-iran-ukraine.html