Prime Minister Boris Johnson, right, greets German Chancellor Angela Merkel, ahead of a meeting during the G-7 summit in Carbis Bay on June 12, 2021. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
It was the first G-7 to be held in two years, and will serve as a blue-print for international gatherings in the post-pandemic age. It was the first meeting of major leaders after four turbulent years of Donald Trump in the White House, where he frequently tore into decades-long alliances and understandings. It was also the final summit for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has served as a bulwark for Europe for 16 years.
It was also a logistical nightmare given social distancing requirements and snafus with live feeds and transportation. Still, host UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson persevered and there was even a communique, something that was at times impossible in the Trump era.
It was also a logistical nightmare given social distancing requirements and snafus with live feeds and transportation. Still, host UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson persevered and there was even a communique, something that was at times impossible in the Trump era
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But the spin and bona-fide attempts to reconnect under an unpredictably whimsical English sun belied the very real differences among leaders who had either never met, or had not seen each other for a while or were new on the scene. The circumstances were unique, and everyone had something to prove.
The awkward photographs — be it of Johnson trying to elbow-bump a masked Merkel who didn’t reciprocate, or the barbecue dinner where no one seemed to respect the rules of social distancing — hinted at the tensions and contradictions bubbling under the surface.
Some, like Brexit, spilled over in a war of words between Johnson and European leaders over the unresolved issues of an acrimonious divorce. Johnson and France’s Emmanuel Macron raised the temperature there even as Merkel sought to rise above the fray.
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Other fissures in key relationships were more subtle. Asked about the election of Joe Biden, she told reporters that a new US president “doesn’t mean that the world no longer has problems.”
Biden wants to rebuild alliances and show the US is, indeed, “back,” but in the words of the departing doyenne, the Europeans will “be frank on what we can’t accept.” She, for one, hasn’t forgotten that the US and the UK didn’t allow the export of vaccines at the height of the COVID-19 crisis while the EU, sluggish in vaccinating its people, sent shots to both countries.
The sense from the meeting was that even as Biden was welcomed in part for simply not being Trump, and for being a convivial member of the group, there is no magic return to a prior “norm,” and that the days of the US dominating decision making and agenda setting and others obligingly falling into line are over. Instead, even with Merkel set to depart after an election in September, the narrative was about a more equal footing for other nations in deciding key matters.
