Ukraine truce dominates G7 talks clouded by Trump's Canada threats

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00:00Next, G7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada to discuss moves to halt the Russia-Ukraine

00:05war.

00:06But U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio shrugged off questions about a prospective U.S. takeover

00:11of the host country, Canada.

00:14Rubio headed to Charlevoix, Quebec after meeting Ukrainian officials in the Saudi city of Jeddah

00:19to discuss an initial ceasefire, as we have been reporting.

00:23He said he wanted the Club of Industrial Democracies to recognize that the United States has done

00:28a good thing for the world, after Kiev backed a U.S.-proposed 30-day truce with Russia.

00:34Let's bring in our correspondent in Ottawa, Christopher Gouley, for more on this one.

00:39Chris, tell us, what should we expect at this G7?

00:44Well I think you're going to hear Secretary Rubio talk about Donald Trump's America First

00:48foreign policy.

00:50Ukraine is going to be top of the agenda, no doubt.

00:54Soon after that meltdown between Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, and J.D. Vance at

01:00the end of February, Justin Trudeau released a statement reaffirming Canada's standing

01:06with Ukraine.

01:09Canada's home to the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world, with more than 1.2 million people,

01:17was the first country to recognize Ukrainian independence in 1991.

01:21So Ukraine has been top of mind in terms of foreign policy here in Canada since the

01:25war with Russia began three years ago.

01:29So Ukraine will absolutely top that agenda, and you're quite right, I think for one day

01:35perhaps there'll be a respite in terms of annexation and tariff talks, at least when

01:40it comes to the official U.S. delegation at Shoah.

01:43Indeed, the whole idea of the annexation of Canada of course seems incredibly outlandish,

01:49it does seem to be very much part and parcel of a certain Trump, America first, to give

01:54it a phrase, policy.

01:56The issue of Ukraine, as you pointed out, is going to be a very, very large issue.

02:01Trump already calling for Russia to be admitted back into this industrial group of nations.

02:05Of course, that's something to be discussed on many levels.

02:09But the issue of tariffs, Chris, is something that I think is bound to be discussed at length.

02:16Absolutely.

02:17Melanie Jolie, Canada's foreign affairs minister, at a news conference earlier today talking

02:22about the retaliatory tariffs from Canada, talked about the fact that she will be meeting

02:27with her European counterparts at the G7 tomorrow, France, UK, Germany.

02:35There will be that discussion because Trump obviously has his eyes set on beyond Canada

02:42and at this point, the global situation with regard to tariff.

02:47I think you're going to see that Canada is going to be having conversations on the margins

02:52of the summit to talk about strengthening the alliance with Europe.

02:56We saw that again with Ukraine when Justin Trudeau flew to London for that summit and

03:00he was the only non-European leader there.

03:03So given what's happening south of the border here, our traditional alliances with the U.S.

03:08are crumbling.

03:09Christopher Gawley in Ottawa, thank you very much indeed, sir, for joining us.

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