Rising costs — driven in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine — will be central to Sunday’s agenda, where leaders will simultaneously work to sustain their pressure on Moscow while also looking for ways to ease price spikes that have cost them each politically.
That could prove a challenging task. Bans on Russian energy have contributed to a spike in global oil prices, yet leaders are loathe to ease up on sanctions they believe are having an effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s economy. One area they have announced action: Banning imports of new Russian gold.
“Here at this meeting of the G7, as well as at NATO, we will continue to do, collectively, everything we can to make sure that the Ukrainians have what they need in their hands to repel the Russian aggression,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
Blinken pointed to the import ban on Russian gold, existing sanctions on Russian oil revenues and international businesses leaving Russia as evidence of the sanctions’ impact. He also cited the fact of the NATO meeting itself — which begins later this week in Madrid — as a testament to Putin failing in his goals.
“When it comes to Putin’s strategic objectives, he’s already failed,” Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We’re about to go to a NATO summit, where the alliance is going to show greater unity, greater strength than in my memory.”
The ruling put into sharp relief the divisions roiling American politics and institutions, which have acted as a worrying subtext for leaders observing Biden’s attempts at restoring American leadership.
Here are several things to watch at Sunday’s G7 summit:
Finding balance
Biden and fellow G7 leaders will discuss ways to punish Russia while still managing an unsteady global economy during their first day of talks Sunday in the Bavarian Alps. The conversations will produce some announcements and “muscle movements,” according to a senior White House official.
“A large focus of the G7 and the leaders are going to be, you know, how to not only manage the challenges in the global economy as a result of Mr. Putin’s war, but how to also continue to hold Mr. Putin accountable and to make sure that he is being subjected to costs and consequences for what he’s doing,” said John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communication at the National Security Council, as Biden was flying to Europe.
“I think leaders are going to be looking for ways to do two things: One, continue to hold Mr. Putin accountable and to increase the costs and consequences of his war on him and his economy,” Kirby said. “And two, minimizing as much as possible the effect of these rising oil prices and the way he has weaponized energy on nations, particularly on the continent but also around the world.”
That balance will define this year’s G7, as leaders work to sustain their pressure campaign on Putin while also confronting rising inflation that has cost some leaders’ politically at home. Biden remarked on the solidarity of the G7 and NATO on Ukraine and the Russian invasion, telling Scholz ahead of the two leaders’ meeting that the groups must remain unified.
“We have to stay together. As Putin has been counting on from the beginning, that somehow NATO and the G7 would splinter, but we haven’t and we’re not going to,” Biden said.
The leaders were already united on one thing — sharing some laughs at the expense of Putin’s notorious photo shoots. As their summit in the Bavarian Alps got underway Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked whether he should keep his suit jacket on.
“Jackets on?” he asked, before joking about how the leaders had to look tough during their talks. “We have to show that we’re tougher than Putin,” he added. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a suggestion: “Bare chested horseback ride,” he said, as the leaders chuckled.
Biden has weathered some of the harshest blowback as he’s seen his approval ratings drop amid a rise in prices.
“There may well be rising pressure in US politics, in the sense of some people in the primaries we’ve seen already have said I don’t care about Ukraine. What matters is cost of living,” one European official said ahead of this week’s trip. “And if the President did get a bounce in the polls because of his leadership on Ukraine,…