President Donald Trump joined other government leaders for a Group of Seven summit held at a French resort June 16-17. This is one of the main imperialist blocs set up to confront challenges to the capitalist world order that emerged from World War II. In addition to Washington, its members are Germany, France, U.K., Canada, Italy and Japan.
They attempted to put forward a united face amid today’s deepening global crisis, and to conceal their increasingly antagonistic relations.
This is the nature of the imperialist epoch we live in. The world has been divided up among all the advanced capitalist powers and the only road for any to make progress against their rivals is through conflict and war.
The meeting backed Trump’s new and unstable “peace” agreement with Tehran, after earlier sharp disagreements over the U.S. rulers’ bombing of Iran. And they agreed on a rare and unexpectedly unanimous statement declaring the G7’s “unwavering support for Ukraine” in its defensive war against Moscow’s brutal invasion.
Relations between European leaders and Washington have been increasingly strained as each government is driven to defend its own imperialist interests against Washington’s and each other’s as their economic and political rivalries grow. They are all moving to rebuild their militaries, looking for new allies and preparing for new conflicts.
French President Emmanuel Macron, the host of the summit, claimed Paris and London are assembling a new maritime coalition ready to help Washington in demining and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. If oil shipments from the Middle East begin again, the rival European rulers all hope they will gain from a fall in prices.
Despite the undertones of friction, the G7 issued the united statement recognizing Ukraine’s “resilience and progress on the battlefield in recent months” against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, now into its fifth year. For now, Trump has shifted from his stance pressing Kyiv to give up territory that its forces tenaciously hold and cede it to Moscow. The simple fact is Moscow is losing territory in Ukraine and suffering serious attacks on its oil refineries and other infrastructure in Russia itself.
Ukraine has ‘new momentum’
The statement said Ukraine has a “new momentum.” But neither Washington nor the European powers act out of concern for Ukrainian sovereignty, only for their rival self-interests over profits, resources and markets. Despite the united statement, Trump said at the G7 that the U.S. “has nothing to do” with the conflict.
The European rulers are much closer to the war, the deadliest on the continent since World War II. The Trump administration has pushed for each of the European powers to shoulder more of the burden of its own defense. Competing governments in Europe are attempting to advance their own positions vis-a-vis their rivals.
The Kremlin is taking blows, despite Russia’s larger army, economy and population. Ukraine has taken the lead in drone warfare and is inflicting heavier damage to military targets in Russia. Ukrainian combatants are motivated by their deep support for the sovereignty of their country. They have used collective ingenuity to take the offensive.
Moscow responds with deadly missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians, punishment for their defiant resistance. Kyiv’s targets, in marked contrast, are Russia’s air defenses, military supply lines and troop concentrations and ammunition stores.
Ukrainian forces have knocked out a fifth of Russian fuel production. Smoke-filled skies and long lines of cars for rationed fuel have brought the war home to millions of Russians. Moscow announced June 21 there is no fuel for drivers in occupied Crimea.
The Kremlin still denies this is a war. When Ukrainian forces set Moscow’s largest oil refinery ablaze June 18, government officials refused to tell people where local civil defense shelters were, saying this information would only be released “during mobilization and in wartime.” Nor did they sound air raid alarms, saying this would “contribute to the panic.”
The Russian working class is the greatest potential ally to the Ukrainian resistance.