Sawt Falasteen - G7 allies seek to bridge divide with Trump at France summit

Participants on the shores of Lake Geneva will be looking to put the sparkle and fizz back into relations with the United States, in the French spa resort of Evian-les-Bains famed as the home of Evian mineral water.

The summit will be one of the first major international gatherings since the United States and its ally Israel began a war against Iran in late February, upending the Middle East and widening transatlantic tensions.

Aside from promoting efforts to end the conflict and re-open the key Strait of Hormuz shipping bottleneck, the leaders will have a packed agenda of potentially explosive issues over three days of talks.

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in attendance, they will look to find a united front on bringing Russia to the negotiating table to end over four years of war sparked by Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Zelensky's participation "is very important for us because we need to rebuild consensus within the G7", including the need for "negotiations", Macron said Wednesday, in a nod to differences with Trump over Ukraine over the past year.

But the other members of the G7 will also be looking to press Trump to accept concessions on global trade imbalances -- in the face of Trump's protectionist trade policies. There is also pressure for greater regulation of big tech firms to protect minors, despite US reluctance.

- Fresh from birthday -

France has been keen to expand the appeal of the Group of Seven leading economies -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and United States -- beyond its core membership. Macron has invited the leaders of Brazil, Egypt, India, Kenya and South Korea to the meeting.

Sam Altman, the head of artificial intelligence giant OpenAI and Arthur Mensch of its European rival Mistral AI, will attend a lunch Wednesday on protecting minors in the digital sphere.

In a bid to find regional consensus on Iran, Macron has invited the leaders of Arab states Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to a special session on Tuesday.

But China, as so often at G7 meetings, will be conspicuous by its absence. There is growing concern in the West over Beijing's dominance and control in the market for rare earth minerals used in everyday electronic appliances.

Seeking to reach out to Beijing, Macron will however on Thursday hold the "World Convergence Summit for Growth" videoconference with the G7 members, China and several other emerging markets attending.

Trump, always a mercurial presence, will be arriving at the G7 summit fresh from celebrating his 80th birthday on June 14 where he is to watch an MMA cage fight on the White House lawn.

French officials want to ensure that there is no repeat of the last G7 in Canada, which Trump left early. They hope the US leader could be tempted to extend his stay in France with a bilateral summit with Macron in Paris or elsewhere.

- 'Aggressive behaviour' -

An immense security operation involving thousands of police and troops is underway, spreading to neighbouring Switzerland on the other side of the lake, where the airport in Geneva will receive arrivals and shops have already boarded up their windows.

For Macron, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the G7, the summit will be one of the final chances to make an impact on the international stage. With less than a year of his final mandate remaining, he wants to press home his cherished idea of increasing European sovereignty.

The talks will lead up to a summit of the wider G20 group that includes China -- to be hosted in December by Trump at a golf resort he owns in Miami.

Ahead of the summit, the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) published a poll of citizens from over a dozen European countries showing that confidence in the United States was falling and only 11 percent viewed the Trump administration as an "ally".

In the face of US "criticism and aggressive behaviour", European leaders have a window "to go further and faster" in building common systems of security, said ECFR senior policy fellow Pawel Zerka.

N.Awad--SF-PST