Rubio Heads to Paris as G7 Weighs Ukraine, Iran, AI and Security Risks

PARIS — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with counterparts from the Group of 7 industrialized democracies on Monday, with unresolved international crises on the agenda and questions mounting over how President Donald Trump will handle foreign policy after his party suffered major losses in the midterm elections.

Two days of talks involving the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan in Paris will take place as large protests have unfolded across Europe, including in the French capital.

The Russia-Ukraine war, the Iran conflict, energy and artificial intelligence are among the main subjects for discussion. Several U.S. allies will be eager to hear how Trump plans to proceed on each issue.

The trip is Rubio’s first foreign trip since the midterm elections dealt Trump’s party severe losses and cost the GOP control of Congress, partly because of policies that proved deeply unpopular, including the Iran war.

When asked about allies seeking to know what comes next after the elections, Rubio told reporters that the countries he is meeting this week understand American politics and “they, too, have experienced divisions in government and divisions in their own system.”

There has been little indication that Democrats’ gains will influence Trump’s strategy, and his first major personnel decision has installed a hard-line supporter, Stephen Miller, as chief of staff, who has advocated extreme positions on both domestic and foreign policy.

America’s top diplomat is seen by many as presenting a gentler side to Trump’s often brusque approach to friends and adversaries, though speculation that he might leave the administration early to prepare for a 2028 presidential run has persisted. He has denied that possibility.

Trump has suggested a partnership with Europe to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The president’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, are set to meet Ukrainian and Russian officials in Abu Dhabi this week to discuss potential compromises.

Rubio said postwar security guarantees for Ukraine and the rest of Europe have been a top concern for allies.

“There’s been some advancement in what that architecture could look like post-conflict,” Rubio said in Florida before flying to Paris. “Nothing’s been finalized yet, and maybe some progress can be made in Abu Dhabi.”

At the same time, Qatari and other mediators have proposed an interim solution to break the deadlock over the conflict with Iran that has pushed fuel prices higher amid instability in key shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

Rubio said the sides are not “at the verge of a breakthrough,” while reiterating that Trump prefers a diplomatic solution. He noted, however, that diplomacy “right now, it hasn’t been very productive because the Iranian demands are simply unacceptable.”

He said he expects allies to have many questions about the conflict and about next steps.

The G7 meetings follow a larger diplomatic gathering that Rubio hosted in Atlanta just over a week ago for G20 foreign ministers — a meeting that produced little consensus on any major global issue.

The G7 comprises the world’s biggest industrialized democracies rather than the 20 largest global economies, and it is made up entirely of U.S. allies. The differences will likely again confound top diplomats. The French have already signaled that the G7 meeting will not produce a joint communique.

The French hosts, who have invited Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine to participate in some discussions, have numerous other priorities, including Africa, China, Cuba and Haiti. The French Foreign Ministry said there will be a meeting on artificial intelligence and a separate session on support for Ukraine.

Trump and his administration have rattled the nerves of America’s G7 partners on issues including support for Ukraine and NATO and opposition to the International Criminal Court. All of the G7 members — except Japan, which has a separate treaty alliance with the U.S. — are in NATO.

The administration is pushing to dismantle the ICC, the world’s first war crimes tribunal to which all G7 members but the U.S. belong. The Trump administration has imposed severe sanctions on the ICC and on a number of its employees, saying it is trying to investigate Americans.

Allies have been told that “if they don’t want us to take these actions against the ICC, then they should convince the ICC to wake up and realize that they do not have jurisdiction over citizens of countries that are not members,” Rubio said Sunday.

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