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US President Donald Trump is set to travel to France next month to attend the upcoming G7 summit, a White House official confirmed on Tuesday.
Trump’s participation had previously remained unverified for the gathering of the Group of Seven leading industrial economies, which will take place from June 15 to 17 at the French Alpine resort of Evian.
The White House had previously noted in January that France adjusted the original summit dates to accommodate the American president’s schedule, as Trump is hosting a highly publicised cage fight at the White House on June 14 to mark his 80th birthday.
According to reports from Axios, the US president intends to centre his summit agenda on critical issues such as artificial intelligence, global trade, and international crime-fighting.
However, his attendance comes amid severe, compounding frictions between Washington and its traditional allies over a host of global matters.
Chief among these disputes is the ongoing war that Trump launched against Iran in February, which has created a massive rift within the international community.
The summit is expected to be contentious, as Trump has repeatedly lashed out at G7 allies for their reluctance to assist in reopening the Strait of Hormuz—a strategic maritime chokepoint effectively closed by Iran, which has triggered a massive spike in global oil prices.
In response, Western allies have expressed deep anxieties regarding the negative economic shockwaves the US-Israeli war is dealing to their own economies, a burden worsened by separate trade tariffs previously imposed by the Trump administration.
While his G7 attendance is locked in, the White House has still not confirmed whether Trump will participate in the upcoming NATO summit in Türkiye scheduled for early July.
