The G7 finance ministers are meeting Monday and Tuesday in Paris and will try to reconcile their positions to assess and respond to the repercussions of the conflict in the Middle East, or to free themselves from dependence on critical Chinese minerals.
One month before the G7 summit in Evian (June 15-17), which it is hosting under the rotating presidency, France wants to maintain the course of dialogue while geopolitical and commercial tensions are intensifying and undermining international relations, including the American ally, which has become unpredictable under Donald Trump.
The latter, who once again threatened Iran with annihilation on Sunday, suggests an imminent resumption of strikes and the end of the fragile truce in force since April 8.
“More than ever, we need to talk to each other. (…) the law of the strongest does not work (…) And therefore we need multilateral discussions, which are not always easy,” Roland Lescure, the French Minister of the Economy, recalled on Sunday on France 3.
At the top of the priorities of the big financiers of the G7: the economic consequences of the war in the Middle East and Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, essential for the transport of hydrocarbons and fertilizers whose prices have jumped.
In response, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects more modest global growth and higher inflation in 2026.
“This war is seriously harming economic development. This is why everything must be done to put a definitive end to it, restore stability in the region and guarantee freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz,” the German Minister of Defense declared in a press release. Finance Lars Klingbeil.
“The G7 is the appropriate forum to discuss these urgent issues with the United States and other G7 countries,” he added.
A new release of strategic oil stocks, like that decided in March, is however not on the agenda, according to Roland Lescure.
“But if we ever manage to open the Strait of Hormuz and we say to ourselves that we need a little time between the moment when the ships leave the strait and the moment when they arrive on our coasts, we can obviously discuss that,” he tempered.
– Vulnerabilities and dependencies –
Ministers will also try to iron out disagreements on international trade after the imposition of customs surcharges by Washington.
While these imbalances fuel trade, geopolitical and financial tensions, and compromise global growth, a common recognition of the situation would already be considered a major step forward by the French presidency.
This G7 meeting, which will also bring together central bank governors from member countries, comes a few days after Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing.
This summit did not lead to major announcements, the two heads of state not having discussed customs duties, while the two leading world economic powers concluded a trade truce last October.
Among the other subjects put on the table, “securing our access to rare earths or fertilizers” will be discussed, Roland Lescure indicated in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche.
In recent years, producing and processing countries, led by China, have sometimes restricted certain exports of these essential components for entire sectors of the world economy, or taken advantage of their dominant position to influence prices.
“We must do for critical materials what we did for energy in the 1970s”, a common cause, Mr. Lescure declared to the press last week.
Finally, the German minister emphasizes that “we do not lose sight of Russia’s brutal war of aggression even if the world’s eyes are on the Middle East: the people of Ukraine can count on our support” in financing their defense.
AFP
