G7 2026 – France – Evian

France holds the G7 Presidency in 2026, and will convene the Leader’s Summit in June in Evian. France aims to return to the G7 to its original purpose, which is to serve as a ‘forum for major powers to respond to the economic challenges of our times’. France President, Emmanuel Macron, in his address at the start of the 2026 Presidency made this clear: ‘Le G7 a été inventé il y a cinquante ans pour résoudre les crises économiques. Il doit redevenir un moteur d’équilibre face aux transformations du monde.’ / ‘The G7 was created fifty years ago to resolve economic crises. It must once again bring balance in the face of global shifts.’ For the French Presidency, the G7 can facilitate dialogue between emerging and major powers, and other committed stakeholders, to work together to ‘reduce global imbalances’ which affect the growth and development of all countries. This goal is underlined by Paris’s view that ‘major economies have a particular duty to safeguard global financial stability and to build fair partnerships with developing countries’.

France’s priorities for its Presidency are:

• settling major geopolitical crises, including through G7 support to Ukraine and Ukrainians;
• childhood matters, from supporting development to online protection;
• the fight against organized crime and illegal flows;
• the new rules of play of global governance.
• strengthening the resilience of critical minerals value chains as a cross-cutting priority. 

Paris sees the G7 as playing a leadership role and support to multilateral initiatives. It thus hopes to use its presidency as an opportunity to follow up on international summits that were hosted in France in 2025, including:

• the United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 : Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development (UNOC, United Nations Ocean Conference)
• the Nutrition for Growth Summit
• the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit

France takes over the G7 Presidency during a time where the Group has become deeply divided by the actions of Washington. Members are sceptical of Trump’s war with Iran. Many of the Group’s members are in NATO, which recently rejected Trump’s call to help him secure the Strait of Hormuz (more below). The war in the Middle East builds on the existing tension between the US and the rest of the G7 following the US’s antagonism towards Denmark over Greenland and Trump’s close relationship with Russia. 

France’s emphasis on reasserting the G7’s role as a forum for dialogue is the French Presidency’s way of saying no to a ‘might is right’ US approach, which it sees as leading to subservience and bloc mentality, or moral posturing that condemns one to ‘marginalisation and powerlessness’. Much like previous G7 host, Canada, France is leaning into its status as a middle power, even though it may still hold onto its ambitions as a Great Power. Paris will not follow suit on the actions of powerful countries, particularly the US. However, it also understands that it cannot maintain any rules-based international order built on mutual interests without the cooperation and assistance of other powers. This was evident in the recent Foreign Minister’s meeting, where French Minister of the Armed Forces, Catherin Vautrin, said that the war ‘is not ours’, and stressed that a diplomatic approach is ‘the only one that can guarantee a return to peace’. It is likely that France’s emphasis on mutually beneficial partnerships, with a focus on transforming partnerships with developing countries, is part of its strategy to navigate the weakening rules-based international order by building and bringing in the cooperation of emerging powers. 

However, news reports suggest that France cannot disengage from the influence of Great Powers, who still hold sway in international cooperation and multilateral forums for the time being. For the upcoming Leaders’ Summit in June, France has invited South Korea, India, Brazil, and Kenya. South Africa has been a regular guest at the Leaders’ Summit, in the past few years, but was a notable omission with Kenya being invited instead. A spokesperson for the South African presidency suggested that Pretoria had been excluded after initially being invited during the G20 Summit in Johannesburg due to ‘sustained pressure from the US’. France has denied this claim, citing that the decision to invite Kenya was to prepare for a France-Africa summit that will be held in May. South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa later downplayed the claim of US pressure on France, stating that there was ‘no pressure from any country’ and that it should not be a surprise if non-members do not get invited to the Summit. However, it should also not be a surprise if the US had some influence in South Africa’s absence from the G7. Washington, who hosts the G20 – of which South Africa is a member and former host – has explicitly excluded South Africa from participation under the US’s G20 Presidency, and currently does not list the previous year’s hosts on the current G20 website. 

Evian Agenda

Financial and Trade Priorities:

The French Presidency has released its priorities under its Finance and Trade Tracks, which will guide the high-level and ministerial meetings throughout the 2026 G7 cycle.

The priorities of the G7 Finance Track are:

1. Reducing macroeconomic imbalances and strengthening economic security: In line-with the goal of using the G7 as a forum for dialogue, France seeks to initiate discussions on imbalances in the economy, including differences in current account balances, industrial policies, and supply chain pressures, which it sees as producing unbalanced growth models that contribute to geopolitical and trade tensions. The goal of this dialogue is to identify collective measures to resolve these imbalances while guaranteeing economic security. The work on this priority will be closely coordinated with the Trade track, and may involve non-G7 countries.
2. Shifting from support to partnerships, redefining the framework for international partnerships with developing countries in order to protect it: France has highlighted the failing system of international development assistance, which has had limited success in addressing the needs of developing countries. At a time of declining levels of official development assistance in the face of high demands for investments, the current development assistance model has been called into question by both donors and developing countries. Given this predicament, France aims to redefine how international partnerships operate. The Finance Track will work on transitioning from an assistance-based approach to a mutually-beneficial partnership.
3. Supporting growth that is balanced, sustainable and safeguards financial stability by ensuring a level playing field: France wants to ensure that economic growth is produced in the context of a level playing field and under rules that are tailored to global economic shifts. To promote a level playing field, the French Presidency has identified three sub-priorities:
   1. Continuing work on international taxation reform
   2. Initiating discussion on issues surrounding competition in the AI sector
   3. Updating multilateral rules on official support for exporting companies

In terms of ensuring the stability of the financial system, the French Presidency has identified four sub-priorities here:

1. Combating financial crime and illicit flows
2. Taking climate risks and extreme weather events into greater consideration
3. Analysing risks and opportunities linked to non-bank financial intermediaries
4. Anticipating the impacts of new technologies

The priorities of the G7 Trade Track are:

1. Addressing excess production capacity: Building on the need to maintain a level playing field for economic growth, France seeks to determine the scope and impacts of excess production capacity on global markets. Under the French Presidency, the Finance and Trade Tracks will work closely with each other to promote effective responses to excess capacity to counteract their effects on distorting markets. 
2. Improving resilience and economic security: France has identified economic security in the form of securing supply chains for strategic goods, particularly critical minerals. Minimising the excessive reliance on goods by diversifying sources of supply is a key part of ensuring economic security, and the Trade Track aims to work closely with the G7 Foreign Affairs and Finance Tracks on this matter. 
3. Contributing to multilateral trading system reform: the general goal set under the French Presidency is to ‘actively contribute to multilateral trading system reform’, in the form of compliance with rules, transparency and fair trade.
4. Promoting sustainable e-commerce: France wants to promote deeper integration of cross-border e-commerce in development of sustainable trade relations. Working closely with the Foreign Affairs and Finance Tracks again, France aims to promote better regulation and processing of small packages. 

War in the Middle East

On February 28, 2026, Israel and the US launched a joint airstrike on Iran, targeting key figures in Iran’s leadership and killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and other high-level members of Iran’s leadership. This triggered retaliation from Iran, which proceeded to launch drones and ballistic missiles at military targets in Israel and US military bases in Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, the UAE and Kuwait, and the US allies, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

US President, Donald Trump, initially stated the goal of the airstrikes was regime change and ‘freedom of the people’. Analysts have been sceptical of the possibility of regime change throughout the US’s attacks on Iran, given the little and contradictory information available on what this regime change would entail and Trump’s initial lack of commitment to putting ‘boots on the ground’ in Iran. However, recent reports that the Pentagon is preparing for ground operations may signal a change of events, although this will still depend on President Trump’s approval. 

The US-military strikes have also motivated concerns of Iran’s nuclear enrichment, whereby the US received information of Iran moving its nuclear enrichment to a different site. The US had been speaking openly about attacking Iran following Tehran’s crackdown on its protestors. Although talks had taken place between the US and Iran, Trump had been unhappy with the progress and indicated such on 27 February, and launched the airstrikes hours after. Since the initial strikes from the US and Israel, Iran continues to launch retaliatory strikes across the Gulf, while the US and Israel have carried out waves of attacks on Tehran and military and infrastructure sites belonging to the Iran government. This has implicated other parties in the Gulf region. The Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon had also launched retaliatory strikes in Israel, who then continued its war with the armed group. Elsewhere, Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen have launched attacks on Israel. Iran has also effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which has generated a global energy shock. 

The first Leaders meeting under France’s Presidency took place on March 11, 2026 and was centred on the economic consequences of the war in the Middle East, with the aim of ensuring the situation and its economic consequences, and to ‘ensure necessary coordination on this issue’, particularly with regards to the transport of vessels in the Middle East. 

Of particular concern for world leaders is the Strait of Hormuz, which serves as a key route for global oil transport, accounting for approximately 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas originating from the Gulf states. Although most of that oil is headed towards Asian states, other important goods pass through the strait, including medicine, technological supplies, and fertiliser – about one third of the total fertiliser traded. Countries dependent on imports from Gulf states – many of which are developing states – have resorted to measures ranging from fuel rationing, reducing work weeks, to closing schools and reducing business operations. The UK and Europe have also faced fuel price increases, while thousands of flights have been cancelled, and supermarkets are bracing themselves for food prices increases. 

G7 leaders have been working on the possibility of escorting vessels through the Strait. G7 countries have also worked with the other member states of the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves to address the disruption in oil markets.

Online child protection

The French Presidency has also focused on incorporating the protection of minors online as part of its overall focus on AI regulation. At the AI Impact Summit in Delhi in February 2026, a summit that forms part of a series of high-level summits on AI, President Emmanuel Macron called for stronger measures to protect children from ‘digital abuse’ and defended the EU’s attempts to regulate AI as part of these measures. Macron’s comments follow the ‘nudification’ trend that was popularised on the social media platform, X. This trend saw users commanding X’s AI tool, Grok, to strip the clothes from photos of women. Grok complied with numerous requests to generate increasingly sexualised images of women, and this extended to images of minors. Ministers in France had reported X to prosecutors. France looks to implement legislation banning social media access for children under the age of 15. The French National Assembly passed the bill, which will see it sent to the France’s Senate for approval. President Macron, who made the protection of children online a major priority in his re-election campaign, is pushing for the bill to come into effect before the start of the school year on September 1, 2026. Macron hopes to make France a global influencer on this issue. Paris launched an Expert Commission on Generative AI and called for contributions ‘to assess the risks and vulnerabilities generated by the general public uses of generative artificial intelligence with respect to minors’. Findings from this Commission will inform the work of the Digital Track under the French G7 Presidency, with the goal of developing a shared framework for strengthening children’s online safety.

Mutually beneficial partnerships

A major priority for France is the development of partnerships that go beyond the inefficiencies and limits of traditional official development assistance. In order to achieve this, France has called for the continued ‘reflection’ on development finance reform to ‘break away from the assistance mindset’. 

The first meeting of the Sherpas, who are key representatives from each G7 Member States, took place on January, 20, 2026, and began the preparations for the final Leaders’ Summit in June. The focus of this meeting was the renewal of international partnerships and the reduction of global macroeconomic balances. It was highlighted by the French Presidency as ‘an opportunity for a collective reset’.