Évian provided a forum for coordination, but the range of invited countries and issues also showed that decisions on security, supply chains and growth increasingly extend beyond the seven member governments. The agenda underscored the difficulty of finding common positions among allies affected differently by conflict, energy prices and US trade policy.
Senior figures representing four AI companies — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Mistral AI were expected to attend, reflecting France’s effort to connect geopolitical crises with broad economic and technological questions. Technology formed part of the gathering as well.
The meeting joined security diplomacy to economic coordination. Participants arrived with different exposure to energy shocks, tariff threats and supply-chain risks, so agreement required negotiation across several overlapping disputes rather than a single dominant question.
Brazil, India, Kenya and South Korea were invited into that discussion, while Macron urged China to increase domestic consumption. France described global macroeconomic imbalance as a shared problem involving Chinese overproduction, US overconsumption and European underinvestment. One focus was China’s influence over rare-earth minerals used in electronic products. The summit also considered China’s position in the global economy despite Beijing’s absence.
Trump had imposed broad tariffs affecting other G7 members and many additional countries, although the US Supreme Court struck those measures down in February. His administration later threatened tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5% on 60 trading partners over alleged forced-labour failures. Trade and tariffs were expected to feature particularly in Trump’s meeting with Modi. Trade was another significant source of friction.
South Africa said in March that it had been disinvited after initially receiving an invitation. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had been invited, but his attendance remained uncertain in the supplied reporting. Leaders from Australia, Brazil, Kenya and South Korea were also attending. Confirmed guests included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Zelenskyy, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar. French President Emmanuel Macron invited a wider group of leaders to participate.
His participation placed Washington’s approach to the Middle East, Russia and tariffs at the centre of talks with other leaders. European governments viewed the summit as an opportunity to press for an approach to Ukraine that maintained pressure on Moscow while continuing military support for Kyiv. Trump was expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the discussions. US President Donald Trump joined the meeting after announcing a tentative agreement with Iran intended to end the war.
The European Union was also represented. France held the rotating presidency of the group, whose members are the United States and United Kingdom alongside France, Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan. Leaders of the Group of Seven gathered in Évian-les-Bains, France, for a two-day summit shaped by the wars involving Ukraine and Iran, disputes over trade and wider economic pressures.
