G7 leaders meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France, committed to strengthening Ukraine's air defenses and tightening economic pressure on Russia's war machine as the fifth year of the conflict continues, while also addressing trade imbalances with China that have cost millions of Western jobs.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that the summit delivered important results for Ukraine, including additional strengthening of Ukraine's air defense, support for defense and energy resilience, and new sanctions on Russia. He said on X, "The G7 Summit in France delivered important results for Ukraine. Most importantly, we agreed on additional strengthening of Ukraine's air defense." He added, "Our partners will ensure support for our defense and energy resilience," and said they would also introduce new sanctions on Russia.
Sustained Allied Commitment
French President Emmanuel Macron said the summit produced "unprecedented convergence" among G7 leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, on maintaining support for Ukraine. The leaders of Japan, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada and the U.S. said in a joint statement that they commended Ukraine for its resilience and progress on the battlefield in recent months and said there was now "a new momentum" in Kyiv's resistance.
The statement said the G7 agreed to increase the delivery of air defence capacities, additional systems and interceptors, and long-range capabilities, and said the group was ready to consider extending to Ukraine the benefit of licences to allow for an increase in Ukraine's military production. The statement also committed the G7 to increasing pressure on the Russian war economy by strengthening sanctions, including those on the oil and gas sectors, and to help Ukraine get through next winter.
The summit also came as Ukraine 2 days ago officially started its EU membership negotiations. Zelenskyy was expected at a European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday.
Iran Deal and Regional Security
The Iran issue dominated part of the summit as Donald Trump responded to criticism of his ceasefire deal with Iran by warning that he was prepared to go back to dropping bombs and insisting the deal did not require the U.S. to pay even 10 cents to Iran. At a side meeting in Évian-les-Bains on Wednesday, he said that if Iran misbehaved he would "go back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head."
He also said, "Anyone who wants to can invest. What do you expect me to say, no one is allowed to invest? But we're not investing; we're not putting up even 10 cents," and added, "If they [others] want to, they can make this investment. What should I say, no one can ever invest in this country?" He said, "I don't think the Gulf countries will do this for a while, until they see Iran's behaviour; this is a matter of behaviour."
Trump praised the deal and said, "There is nothing as smart as the market and the market loves it." He also said, "The alternative would be a worldwide depression," and argued that if he had not struck a deal, "the strait [of Hormuz] would never have been opened. They don't like floating billion-dollar ships up and down the strait when their rockets are flying overhead and there are mines all over the place." He said the price of oil per barrel had fallen to $72 and would soon fall below the level it had been at before the war.
The G7 statement welcomed the deal but said a follow-on agreement was necessary to rein in Iran's ballistic missile programme, which was not directly addressed in the memorandum of understanding due to be signed 2 days from now by Iran and the U.S. The statement said future negotiations with Iran would benefit from the involvement of a wider group of regional and international actors including the IAEA, the UN nuclear weapons agency.
The memorandum agrees to immediately lift U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil exports and a series of related industries, and to create a $300bn reconstruction fund. The leaders said they "strongly support a robust and comprehensive diplomatic follow-on agreement to the memorandum of understanding secured by President Trump that can bring peace and security for all in the region."
The statement also endorsed a multinational, independent and defensive initiative led by France and the UK that could help facilitate the resumption of maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, and said the right of transit passage without restrictions or tolls was a bedrock of international trade. The summit statement also called for a ceasefire in Lebanon.
China Trade Imbalances
China's trade practices were near the top of the agenda as leaders gathered in Évian-les-Bains, and the G7 leaders said they were concerned that global imbalances had been persistent and widened in recent years. China last year recorded a global trade surplus of $1.2 trillion, Chinese exports to the 27-nation EU climbed 16.4% in January to May from a year earlier, and France's trade deficit with China rose to $5.3 billion from $3.3 billion a year earlier.
French President Emmanuel Macron had warned earlier this year that Chinese exports were "literally killing a large part of the European industry" and that Europe was "slow to see that." The United States had seen Chinese goods exports to the U.S. drop 37% from January through April this year compared with the same period of 2025, and Germany's economy had stagnated, shrinking in 2023 and 2024 and growing just 0.2% last year.
Economists David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David Dorn of the University of Zurich and Gordon Hanson, now at Harvard, found that competition from China had led to the loss of 2.4 million American jobs. Maurice Obstfeld, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, said, "China's export surge, unless its leaders rein it in, will provoke a protectionist wave against Chinese imports worldwide," and Taylor Wang at HSBC warned this month that a China-EU trade dispute could threaten Chinese exports.
Eswar Prasad of Cornell University said, "The second China shock is characterized by its companies running the board on manufacturing exports -- from low-tech, low-wage to high-tech high value-added industries," and added that this was directly hitting advanced economies where it now hurt the most. The G7 leaders' statement said, "Countries with large and persistent external surpluses should strengthen domestic sources of growth," and that such policies could include lifting constraints on private demand growth, improving social safety nets and avoiding distortive policies with negative spillovers to other countries.
Former U.S. trade negotiator Wendy Cutler, now senior vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said, "Beijing has been relying on the rest of the world to address its overcapacity problem," and added, "However, this unsustainable situation may soon change if the EU and others take steps to halt Chinese imports, following the U.S. lead."
Technology and Defense Coordination
Artificial intelligence and technology sovereignty were also prominent. AI executives gathered at the G7 as Europeans sought checks on American dominance. Europe was fretting about U.S. AI tech as the world flocked to France for the G7 and VivaTech, and the summit discussions included export controls, access to advanced AI models and Europe's push for sovereign computing power. G7 leaders vowed closer ties on AI as they hashed out a trusted partners scheme. The summit included discussion of Europe's economic security and sovereign computing power.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte played down the impact of the Trump administration's decision to cut back the number of troops and military equipment it would provide allies should they come under attack. Rutte said the U.S. was not withdrawing more troops from Europe and said, "This is not about where forces and assets are currently located," and, "It's about who would do what if our defense plans were activated. So, let's say in case of an Article 5 situation."
He said the U.S. was scaling back how it might help should an ally trigger Article 5, but that it did not intend to withdraw its nuclear weapons in Europe. NATO's supreme allied commander, an American, was working on backup plans to defend Europe after the U.S. signaled 14 days ago that it would no longer supply an aircraft carrier and support ships, aerial refueling planes and dozens of fighter jets, among other military assets, in a crisis.
The Pentagon had informed NATO allies earlier this month that it would no longer provide as much as it focused on potential threats elsewhere, notably from China in the Indo-Pacific region. NATO's top commander, U.S. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, believed there were largely capabilities available that other allies already had or would have in the near future to fill the U.S. shortfall, and Rutte said, "The overall picture is looking good."
The U.S. currently had 590 troops deployed with KFOR in Kosovo, second only among the 31 contributing nations to Italy with 907 personnel, and U.S. Black Hawk helicopters were stationed at Camp Bondsteel. NATO military headquarters announced it would reduce the size of its security force in Kosovo, that more than 1,000 personnel would leave, and that KFOR began deploying in 1999 to keep the peace between Kosovo and Serbia. 1,000 additional troops were deployed in 2023 after fresh violence erupted.
Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, hailed Trump's signing of the G7 joint statement calling for further economic pressure on Russia as a gamechanger revealing a new realism by Trump on Ukraine. The G7 meeting in Évian-les-Bains was chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and brought together the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., Canada and Japan.
Why This Matters:
The G7's commitment to sustained military and economic support for Ukraine signals that Western allies remain focused on imposing costs on Russia's war economy through targeted sanctions on critical sectors like oil and gas, while avoiding direct military confrontation. The emphasis on air defense systems and domestic military production licenses reflects a strategy of enabling Ukraine to defend itself rather than requiring permanent Western troop deployments. On China, the summit's focus on persistent trade imbalances and the loss of 2.4 million American jobs underscores growing concern that market-distorting overcapacity threatens Western manufacturing competitiveness. The call for countries with large surpluses to strengthen domestic demand rather than rely on exports suggests G7 nations are preparing coordinated responses to protect their industrial bases. Trump's Iran deal, which avoids U.S. financial commitments while reopening oil markets and reducing energy prices, demonstrates a transactional approach that prioritizes economic stability and relies on market forces and behavioral conditions rather than upfront reconstruction investments. The NATO force adjustments reflect a strategic rebalancing toward Indo-Pacific threats while maintaining nuclear deterrence in Europe, placing greater defense burden-sharing responsibility on European allies.