In a week that an interim peace agreement WAS signed between the US and Iran bringing a temporary end to the conflict and the beginning of a sixty day window to negotiate the many unresolved issues.
President Trump signed the Memorandum of Understanding over a dinner at the Palace of Versailles, and before he’d had time to digest his dessert of Hot Chocolate Pie and French Vanilla Ice Cream there were already grumblings within the Republican party that a military win had been turned into a strategic defeat. Iran’s Supreme Leader claimed Trump had made a deal out of desperation, but it was bravo and cheers at the Chateau.
It’s been a week’s that’s seen the leaders of the G7 nations meet lakeside in Geneva. It was in Evian, five decades on from the inaugural meeting in France established to work out how to deal with the global economic turbulence in the aftermath of the oil crisis of 1973. France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US back alongside Canada. This year some other handpicked leaders were invited, the prime ministers of India and Kenya, the Presidents of Brazil, Turkey, Egypt and the UAE, the emir of Qatar, and, what we’ll be discussing in the programme tonight:, the new faces at the table, the bosses of big tech. Canada’s Mark Carney said the old ritual gathering is useful for weaving the strands of a new world order through broader engagement, but the G7 no longer pretends to run the world.
It’s been a week that‘s seen President Zelensky secure renewed western commitment at the G7 with European Leaders talking of an apparent renewed focus and tone from President Trump. This time last year Trump compared the war to two boys fighting in a park, sometimes you’re better off leaving them to it, he said. This week he put his name to a joint statement declaring “unwavering support” for Ukraine, and backed calls for increased pressure on Russia and while he stopped short of criticising Putin, he said Moscow should make a deal.
