00:00Well, let's get more now on the G7. Jamie Shea is a senior fellow at the Friends of Europe Think
00:05Tank and a former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General.
00:10This is an opportunity for the G7 leaders to show that the G7 still matters and it can do serious
00:16diplomatic business, that the G6 can work with the G1, the United States, in a productive way, particularly if President
00:23Trump does not leave the meeting early, as he's done on two previous occasions.
00:29It certainly on Iran, as your correspondents have been saying, can try to come up with a roadmap for how
00:34to implement this agreement with Iran and take it forward.
00:38For instance, the Europeans in the past, Jamie, as you know, have been useful to the United States in hosting
00:44meetings on the Iranian nuclear file and helping and, of course, also imposing the sanctions on Iran at the time
00:52so they can renew that offer.
00:54Because clearly it's going to be a difficult and painful even negotiation, as it always is with the Iranians, to
01:02get them to sign an agreement on their nuclear program.
01:05The second thing is reopening the Straits of Hormuz, where the Europeans have offered the United States a maritime task
01:10force to help with demining, escorting ships, situational awareness.
01:15Trump has blown hot and cold as to whether he really wants this European task force, but it could be
01:20a way of mending some of the wounds that were opened up, of course, in the early stages of the
01:25war, when Trump blamed the Europeans for not supporting him.
01:29And, of course, given the economic situation globally, the oil price, the issue with fertilizers, supply chains, a dialogue at
01:36the G7 on what they can do jointly to try to accelerate, you know, the Saudis pumping oil again, the
01:42Qataris producing gas, getting those ships moving, really getting that one-fifth of world energy supplies back on tap.
01:49That's going to be important as well.
01:51So, yes, lots of potential opportunities for the G7 to show it still matters, but there are other things on
01:56the agenda as well, notably Ukraine.
01:58And it's quite interesting that it's not Iran, Jamie, which is the first session at the G7 this morning in
02:04Evian.
02:05It's Ukraine with Zelensky in the hope that now that Trump has finally got his deal with the Iranians over
02:11the line, attention can swing back to Ukraine and the U.S. can get back seriously involved in the peace
02:18talks for Ukraine.
02:19And do you think that member states in the G7 really can influence President Trump on Ukraine?
02:25It's a tough one, but they can point out that, number one, they really have over the last couple of
02:30years taken on 99%, literally 99% of the financing and arming and equipping of Ukraine.
02:38They can point out that President Zelensky is serious about peace talks and it's really an issue of delivering Putin
02:45to the table.
02:46Trump has suggested that his two super envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, will go back to Russia soon to
02:55try to restart negotiations.
02:56They can point out that Ukraine has been having some serious successes on the battlefield, not necessarily regaining a lot
03:03of its territory, but certainly preventing the Russians advancing.
03:06And, of course, also the Ukrainian long-range drone strikes on energy facilities in Russia, which are seriously depleting Putin's
03:14war chest.
03:15So the idea that Trump was expounding six months ago that Russia has all the cards in Ukraine, none, clearly
03:21isn't the case any longer.
03:22So, yes, I think they will be hopeful that maybe, you know, they can get America more involved in some
03:27of the sanctions that are now being talked about, ramping up the sanctions against Russia.
03:31You'll recall the UK boarded a Russian shadow tanker, or at least a tanker supplying Russian oil in the English
03:39Channel over the weekend.
03:41And, you know, at least maybe without expecting too much from the Americans, have more alignments on the way forward.
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