00:00I'm here in Khambouye. This is just an hour outside of Paris in the French countryside.
00:05This is where G7 foreign ministers are going to be meeting.
00:09It actually goes back to the origins of the first summit, which was in 1975.
00:15Now, they originally thought they would be talking about the Ukraine war,
00:18but now events dominating by the Middle East. That is dominating the agenda here.
00:24Now, the immediate concern is the Strait of Hormuz.
00:27This is the critical oil supply route that has been disrupted and is rattling the markets and investors.
00:35Now, the G7 has tried to show unity on this.
00:37They've condemned Iran for the attacks on energy infrastructure as well,
00:42as pledging to step in to support energy supplies if needed.
00:49But the real focus, as you mentioned there, is going to be the pressure coming from Washington to do more.
00:54And we did just get a headline also that the French finance minister is going to be calling for a
00:59special G7 meeting on Monday
01:01to address this with finance ministers, central bank governors and energy ministers.
01:06For the U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, he's going to be arriving tomorrow.
01:11And this is going to be his first international trip since the war in the Middle East began.
01:16And as you mentioned, he's expected to try to win over skeptical G7 allies to a tougher U.S. approach
01:23on Iran
01:24because so far than most of the members, they haven't wanted to support this U.S. military-style intervention.
01:31And they don't want to be drawn in directly.
01:34This has evoked the ire of President Donald Trump,
01:38who, of course, has also delivered a 15-point peace plan which goes well beyond a ceasefire.
01:44It demands that Iran gets rid of its nuclear ballistic missiles program as well as reopens the strait.
01:50But Iran is rejecting that.
01:52And G7 isn't so fully on board either.
01:57Whilst they agree around the problems with Iran and the risks,
02:01they can't agree on a solution.
02:03They are prioritizing diplomacy and de-escalation over direct military intervention.
02:10But, Karen, as we're seeing all of the markets in disarray,
02:15they're fast-moving, all markets in focus,
02:17those divisions are now becoming harder and harder to ignore.
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