G7 Leaders Meet in France With Iran and Ukraine at the Center

Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) gathered in France for a summit dominated by two crises, the war in Ukraine and instability in the Middle East. French President Emmanuel Macron said a working lunch would focus on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint at the center of the United States-Iran framework deal.

Africanews described the gathering as high-stakes talks on two major global crises, while The Hindu reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined the leaders and that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was expected to meet Trump on the sidelines. The presence of leaders from outside the bloc underscores how much of the agenda involves states that are not members.

Russia, notably, was absent and uninvited. The Kremlin confirmed that President Vladimir Putin had received no invitation, a reminder of how the forum has narrowed since Russia's exclusion a decade ago. That narrowing matters for the institution's reach. A body representing a shrinking share of global output is attempting to coordinate responses to conflicts whose resolution increasingly depends on countries it does not include.

For markets, the summit's most concrete output would be any unified position on Gulf shipping and on financing for Ukraine, both of which carry direct consequences for energy and sovereign debt.