G7 2025 – Canada
2025 will see Canada hosting the 51st G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta. A G7 was first held there in 2002. Following the recent wave of elections in 2024 and flowing into 2025, the G7 Summit will be attended by new heads of states from Germany, Japan, the UK, the US, and the host nation itself.
The key issues for Canada’s 7th Presidency of the G7 will cover inclusive economies, artificial intelligence (AI), continued support for Ukraine, and climate change. The T7 Summit, which takes place prior to the Leader’s Summit, but offers inputs to negotiations for the final Leader’s Declaration, confirms these priorities, with Task Forces dedicated to Transformative Technologies – AI and Quantum, Digitalization of the Global Economy, Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development, and Global Peace and Security. Many of these issues will likely feature on the main agenda of the Leader’s Summit in June.
Canada assumes the Presidency in the midst of its own set of domestic troubles, with a change in leadership in the Liberal Party and its once predicted exit from power in the upcoming national elections. However, Donald Trump’s urging Canada to become the 51st state has shaken up the now declared federal election. With the election of Mark Carney as the new leader of the ruling Liberal Party, and his swearing in as the new Prime Minister, the Liberals hope to capitalise on favourable polls. An election has now been called for April 28th.
A busy election year for Canada means that they will likely have fewer meetings during their Presidency, compared to the G7 Summit in Italy in 2024.
The G7 Summit also takes place in the early months of a new US Presidency under Trump. Trump has already instigated major tensions with the host nation and G7 partners with his “America first” policies. Thus far, Trump has disrupted trade and security policies with some of the US’s closest post-war partners, creating rifts in a G7 that is used to taking relatively similar stances on these issues. To this point, as it stands, the US has remained an active participant in the G7 meetings, in contrast to early G20 meetings, having participated in the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on the margins of the Munich Security Conference in February, and US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, attending the most recent G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Charlevoix in March.
As noted above, this stands in contrast to the US’s involvement in the G20. The US was absent in the first G20 meeting that took place in Johannesburg, South Africa, in February 2025. US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio justified his absence by stating that, “[m]y job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism”. US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, did not attend a G20 Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors Meeting, although US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was present. The meeting also had absentees from the finance ministers of China, Japan, India and Canada.
As the Canadian Presidency ramps up towards the Summit in June, it appears that unity will need to be more hard-won and pragmatic if the G7 hopes to continue to exercise collective influence on global security and economic issues.
Developing G7 Agenda
The Canadian agenda will continue to build on the priorities of its predecessor, Italy, including the war in Ukraine and migration. Given the actions of the Trump government, trade and security are expected to be more salient issues on the G7 Agenda, compared to previous years.
Canada’s flagship programming under the G7 has been gender equality. In 2018, under Canada’s previous G7 Presidency, it established the Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC), an independent advisory body to provide inputs that integrate gender equality and gender-based analysis across all themes, activities and activities of the G7 Presidency. In that same year, Canada had invested around $3.8 billion dollars in education for women and girls in crisis and conflict situations. The GEAC has met every year since its founding, except for 2020. Canada will likely maintain a prominent position for gender equality on the agenda.
War in Ukraine: the G7 maintained its support for Ukraine and its long-term security in a recent joint statement released after a meeting between G7 Foreign Ministers on 12-14 March, 2025. Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has also invited Zelenskyy to the Leader’s Summit in June.
The G7 voiced their support of ongoing negotiations between the US and Ukraine and Saudi Arabia to secure a ceasefire deal. G7 Members have called on the Russian government to accept the ceasefire, or face escalating action from the G7, including further sanctions, caps on oil prices, and additional support for Ukraine. Ukraine continues to seek robust security guarantees from the US and its allies. Observers note that part of the ceasefire negotiations have been attempts to repair the relationship between Ukraine and the US after the public dispute between Zelenskyy and Trump and Vance, which hurt both Ukraine’s alliance with the US and cast doubt on the US’s commitment to the EU’s collective security.
Security in the Middle East: as it stands, the G7 reiterates their support for a permanent ceasefire and the unhindered provision of humanitarian aid to Gaza. While the G7 recognised ‘Israel’s inherent right to defend itself consistent with international law’ following the October 7th attacks by Hamas, Israel’s decision to end the ceasefire with air strikes on March 18th, increasingly renders Israel’s actions towards Gaza and the Palestinians as detrimental. The ‘E3’ consisting of the UK, France, and Germany called for the immediate resumption of the ceasefire, while Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, stressed that the Israeli airstrikes jeopardized the long term objectives to release the hostages and restore humanitarian assistance. Israel had consulted the US ahead of the airstrikes.
Regarding support for Palestine, G7 members remained vague in their commitments due to US resistance towards language around a two-state solution, resulting in a joint G7 statement following the Foreign Ministers’ meeting that expressed the need for, ‘a political horizon for the Palestinian people, achieved through a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that meets the legitimate needs and aspirations of both peoples and advances comprehensive Middle East peace, stability and prosperity’.
Trade: Tensions permeate the US and the rest of the G7 Members following the start of Trump’s second term as the US leader has leaned into trade policies that undermine its relationship with its allies.
On the one side, Trump has butted heads with the G7 host this year in a string of events that involved threats of steep tariffs, and jibes that Canada should be regarded as the US’s 51st state. Trump is amping up trade tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico that he initially raised during his first term. For Canada, this includes 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports and 10% on electricity. This was initially met with a 25% surcharge on electricity exports from the Canadian province of Ontario, which led to further threats by Trump to increase US tariffs to 50% and Ontario backing down from its surcharge. Canadian Foreign Minister, Melanie Joly, has maintained that Canada can win the trade war given that it is the ‘biggest customer of the US’, while just-named Prime Minister Mark Carney has suggested removing internal trade barriers in Canada to offset the US tariffs.
On the other side, Trump has hurled allegations at the EU that it was formed to ‘screw the United States’, and threatened to impose a tariff of 25% on all EU imports. The US President has also suggested that it would drop security guarantees for its allies in Europe. Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU, affirmed that, ‘[t]he EU wasn’t formed to screw anyone’ and reiterated the mutual benefits of peace and trade across the Atlantic. Ahead of the wholesale US tariffs on steel and aluminium, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyden, warned that the US tariffs will ‘trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures’ that would target US exports such as motorcycles, jeans, peanut butter, and whiskey. As it stands, the EU has delayed its counter-tariffs to mid-April to re-think the US goods it aims to target and offer extra weeks for negotiations with Washington. If the EU counter-measures get implemented, Trump has threatened to follow-up with a 200% tariff on all alcoholic products from the EU.
Trump has posited the tariffs as protection for local jobs and production, however, it is more than possible these measures may impose high costs in the domestic market and generate significant uncertainty in the US-Canada-Mexico economies.
With Canada hitting back with retaliatory tariffs, and the EU engaging in tit-for-tat tactics against Trump’s trade policies, the trade wars have generated increasingly poor relations between the US and its allies as G7 meetings continue to unfold. Historically, the G7 has been unified through its commitment to the ideals of liberal democracy and free trade. Trump’s actions undermine these core values.
Inclusive economies: Under its current Presidency Canada has highlighted ‘building economies that benefit everyone’ as one of its common priorities that it will work with other G7 members to advance. This connects to the previous Canadian Presidency in 2018, where ‘investing in growth that works for everyone’ was one of the key themes that Canada used to advance domestic and international priorities, and featured prominently in the final Leaders’ Communique. During the 2018 Summit in Charlevoix, ‘growth that works for everyone’ was taken to mean investing in infrastructure to create quality jobs, growing the middle class, addressing income inequality, and ‘removing the barriers that keep our citizens, including women and marginalized individuals, from participating fully in the global economy’.
These areas of focus are consistent with the G7’s overall priorities with regards to promoting economic growth. In its previous Presidencies, the G7 has given particular attention to growth that benefits everyone when discussing transitioning to net-zero economies and growing the digital economy by committing to ensuring that sustainable growth is created and that no one is left behind by any disruptive changes. Given that gender equality has been a major policy focus in Canada’s engagements with the G7, it is likely that this will feature prominently in discussions around economies that benefit everyone, alongside the G7’s focus on digital and net-zero economies.
Insofar as the ongoing trade wars may impact economies in North America and Europe by injecting uncertainty in regional economies, this undermines the G7’s commitment to fostering economies that benefit everyone and fostering equitable trade systems, as outlined in the G7 Leaders Communique for the Italian Apulia Summit in the previous year. It is yet to be outlined how the Canadian Presidency would hope to maintain momentum in the G7 on inclusive economies with tariffs dominating the priorities of individual G7 Members.
Technology: In the previous Leaders’ Communique, the G7 highlighted AI as playing a crucial role in promoting progress and development, but stressed that the ethics of AI should be directed towards a human-centred digital transformation that is in line with shared democratic values and respect for human rights. Given Canada’s relative strength in AI and quantum technologies, with notable thinkers and leaders in these fields based in the country, it will likely leverage this position to advance G7 commitments to robust and effective AI governance. Other technology related issues that will be discussed among G7 members will likely be the digitalisation of the global economy and data governance.
Climate Change: In the previous Climate, Energy and Environment Ministers’ Meeting under the 2024 Italian G7 Presidency, Member states recognised the ‘triple global crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution’, that poses a threat to sustainable development. Major policy areas that will likely be points of focus and contentious negotiation include energy security; financing climate and biodiversity and transformation of the International Financial Architecture; sustainable, inclusive and resilient infrastructure; and industrial decarbonization, sustainable trade and investment.
Climate change efforts by the G7 will also form part of the G7’s deepening engagements with the African continent through clean energy investments. This will add to the discussions the Group has had with African states on increasing cooperation and through diversifying resource access and addressing migration issues.