The US is blocking a proposed Group of Seven statement urging Israel and Iran to de-escalate their conflict, people familiar with the matter said, highlighting the distance that’s opened up between President Donald Trump and other members of the bloc.

Trump has no interest in such a message from G-7 leaders, who are meeting for a summit in Alberta, Canada, and instead wants to keep up pressure on Iran to halt its efforts to obtain a nuclear weapon, one of the people said. Another person didn’t rule out the possibility the president might agree to an amended statement later on.

The standoff was emblematic of the challenges facing the Group of Seven, founded 50 years ago to boost cooperation among the world’s most powerful democracies. The annual summit of leaders, traditionally a moment to demonstrate unity, has become further evidence of how Trump has moved US policy away from close cooperation with of its putative allies.

Fearful of further discord, Prime Minister Mark Carney, the event’s host, decided before it began not to seek a joint communique — a routine statement that generally declares shared principles for the seven countries on a broad range of topics.

Trump showed from the start of the event he had no interest in keeping quiet, telling reporters that Russia never should have been expelled from the group, as it was in 2014 over its invasion of Crimea. He blamed former US President Barack Obama and Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, even though Trudeau wasn’t prime minister at the time.

“This was a big mistake — you wouldn’t have that war,” Trump said in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “Putin speaks to me, he doesn’t speak to anybody else because he was insulted when he got thrown out of the G-8,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Rather than confront Trump, other leaders pushed to cut deals with him individually, especially around trade. Some, like Japan and Canada, are seeking the removal of US tariffs. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump signed to implement a trade deal to cut US tariffs on some British exports and raise UK quotas on some US agricultural products.

And European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, also seeking to steer the discussion towards economic matters, urged the G-7 to work together to battle trade practices by China they see as unfair. 

China has shown that it’s unwilling “to live within the constraints of the rules-based international system,” she said. “While others opened their markets, China focused on undercutting intellectual property protections, massive subsidies with the aim to dominate global manufacturing and supply chains.”

Other leaders, including Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, are due to meet Trump and other G-7 members in the mountain region of Kananaskis, west of Calgary.  

Members of the bloc were working on a joint statement to establish an “action plan” to diversify supplies of critical minerals as they seek to move away from reliance on China for materials used in everything from mobile phones to wind turbines.

But they were unlikely to reach agreement on a European push to lower a price cap on Russian oil or to impose new sanctions on the country, given Trump’s reluctance.

Carney acknowledged the changed global reality in his opening remarks to the group while also being sure to praise Trump.

“Nostalgia isn’t a strategy — we have to change with the times and to build a better world,” he told the other leaders. “And some of you — such as you, Mr. President — have anticipated these massive changes and are taking bold measures to address them.”

The Israel-Iran conflict, which entered its fourth day on Monday, hung over the entire event. US forces have helped defend Israel against incoming attacks from Iran but Trump has otherwise kept the US military out of the exchanges, which have seen Israel strike Iran’s nuclear facilities and other targets.

After earlier urging Israel not to strike Iranian nuclear targets, Trump has blamed Iran for the strikes, saying it had ignored a 60-day ultimatum he’d given to sign a deal imposing limits on its nuclear program.

“They’d like to talk,” Trump told reporters in the midst of bilateral meeting with Carney. “They should have done that before. They had 60 days, on the 61st day I said ‘We don’t have a deal.’ They have to make a deal.” 

“They should talk immediately before it’s too late,” he said.

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Published on June 17, 2025