The curtain is closing on the final act of President Joe Biden’s global foreign policy outreach. From November 23 to 27, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Italy to meet with his counterparts at the G7 foreign ministers’ gathering. In less than 55 days, however, the problems addressed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States will be in President-elect Donald Trump’s portfolio. So there was little in the way of a resolution determined by the foreign ministers in attendance.
G7 Countries Meet Without Much to Show for the Effort
What made this G7 conference different from past gatherings is that, because the conflict in the Middle East was high on the agenda, representatives from the region attended. Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Egypt attended for the first time. There was guarded optimism that intense fighting between the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and Iran proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon may be coming to an end.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire pact with Hezbollah on November 26, greenlighted by Israel’s security cabinet. The Israeli leader explained the IDF was willing to enforce the ceasefire but reserved the right to attack if Hezbollah breaks the agreement.
In addition to the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict and a potential end to the hostilities, Blinken engaged the other G7 nations on topics that included how to ensure humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians in Gaza, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, “Indo-Pacific security, and the ongoing crises in both Haiti and Sudan,” a State Department press statement said. With the attendance of Middle East region representatives, Sudan was a particular topic of emphasis.
Blinken Talked One-on-One With Italian Foreign Minister
In a one-on-one meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Blinken raised the implications of Russia’s employing combat forces from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Ukraine, according to a readout of the discussion. North Korea has as many as 11,000 ground troops in the fight against Ukrainian forces. As Liberty Nation News observed, “The introduction of North Korean forces into the war was the primary reason Biden reversed his decision” on allowing Ukraine to use the full capability of the US-provided long-range missiles.
Despite the full agenda of pressing problems, with Blinken representing a lame-duck administration, any substantive discussions or decisions made by the G7 will wait for the incoming Trump administration. A negotiated peace in Ukraine and support for Israel eliminating remnants of the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hamas will top the list of discussion topics.
Until then, Israel keeping a ceasefire in Lebanon, the IDF continuing its clearing of Hamas from Gaza, and sustaining the stalemate in Ukraine will be the challenges. As far as any progress, the G7 representatives returned to their countries with little to show for the trip to Rome. As too often happens, they will have simply chatted among themselves.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.
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