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A White House official’s briefing on the G7 Summit

26/06/2022

Source: White House Press Office- Travel Pool Report

Marah Bukai, WHiA’s Chief Correspondent for the White House

OVERVIEW OF BILATERAL WITH CHANCELOR OLAF SCHOLZ

‘I would characterize the meeting as very warm and friendly. The president expressed his trust in Chancellor Scholz. And really there was comprehensive alignment on all of the issues that they discussed and all the common challenges that our countries are working on together.
‘As I have previewed in the call this morning, Ukraine was one of the main topics of conversation in the meeting. And again, there I would say there is very close alignment between our two countries.
‘They discussed the ongoing coordination on the diplomatic front, the provision of security assistance, economic support, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
‘The president expressed appreciation for the security assistance that Germany has been providing to Ukraine. And on the defense issue, I think this came up at the top of the pool spray, the President also reaffirmed appreciation for Germany’s decision to increase its own defense spending, which is obviously a critical issue heading into the NATO summit after this.
‘They touched on China, which I think is going to continue to be a broad theme for this trip. A year ago, you’ll remember China was mentioned in the G7 leader statement and was also mentioned for the first time in the NATO leader statement. We expect that that’s going to be echoed and enhanced in meetings this week, starting at the G7 and then continuing on at NATO including in the strategic concept.
‘So the President and Chancellor Scholz also discussed the need for continued close cooperation between the US and the EU in response to China. The two leaders also discussed broad g7 priorities, including climate and the importance of continuing to promote economic resilience and economic prosperity globally.
‘And then also a discussion on infrastructure. Today, of course at the G7 there is an infrastructure focus. There will be a session where leaders are discussing infrastructure.

AND MILITARY ASSISTANCE ANNOUNCEMENTS COMING?

‘I would leave it to the Germans to preview any of their announcements. But there was discussion, with the president expressing appreciation for what Germany has already committed to doing, including their defense minister last week announcing plans to send the additional MLRS systems that go along with the assistance that the US has provided.’

IS BIDEN ASKING EUROPEANS TO DO MORE?

Zelinsky is going to participate in the G7 meeting. He’s going to participate in the NATO meeting, the US has been by far the biggest provider of security assistance to Ukraine. The president, as well as Secretary Austin, and the rest of the administration have continued to encourage other countries to provide weapons.

‘Secretary Austin, I think it was last week held the second in-person meeting of the Defense Contact Group, which was again a way of allies coming together.
‘The Germans made an announcement on their MLRS systems at that meeting, so that I think was really the near-term opportunity. To make a push on security assistance. You know, clearly, all of these leaders have their own conversations with President Zelensky. Zelensky has made clear what they’re engaging in terms of this phase of the conflict in the Donbas and the types of security assistance that they need.’

DISCUSSION OF OIL PRICE CAP?

‘There was no extensive discussion of the price cap. I think, you know, a number of these issues were discussed in a broad framework, but most of the detailed discussion on all of these issues is being handled by Sherpas within the framework of the g7 meetings themselves.’

ANY SENSE OF ENDORSING IDEA OF CEDING UKRAINIAN TERRITORY IN A PEACE DEAL

‘Really, I think there is broad agreement across the board on the approach to Ukraine. Chancellor Scholz, of course, was just there a couple of weeks ago with the other European leaders.
‘And as I said, I think there was a continued commitment by both President Biden and Chancellor Scholz to continue providing security assistance to Ukraine. I think both of them agree with President Zelensky that ultimately there needs to be a negotiated resolution to the conflict. But they did not get into specific details about how to achieve that. And I think both of us have the same broad approach to the diplomatic solution.’

ANY DISCUSSION OF DIVERTING CROPS FROM BIOFUELS TO AVERT A FOOD CRISIS?

‘So this again, is another one of those issues that’s being handled in in Sherpa channels. That was not discussed. I mean, the meeting really focused on a lot of the big picture agenda setting items and then all of the leading negotiations on these things is being left to the Sherpas.’

CHINA IN G7 AND NATO STATEMENTS

‘So just as teams are continuing to work here on the g7 document teams are continuing to make final tweaks on the strategic concept. So those conversations are ongoing. I think we’re very confident we’re going to get to a good place. And then we’re going to have strong China language in the NATO Strategic Concept, which will be I think, you know, a significant improvement or change from 2010 when China was not mentioned and Russia, I think was called a strategic partner or something.

ON US POLARIZATION AND DOMESTIC POLITICS INTERFERING IN PROGRESS

‘I think if you if you look at a lot of the European leaders, you know, there’s a number of countries that have had elections. Everybody has their own domestic politics similar to the US having domestic politics.

‘I certainly have not heard any conversations thus far on the margins of the meetings or wouldn’t expect in the formal sessions that that to be a topic of conversation. I think everybody really is focused on getting done what we can do now. You know, I think the president has continued to make clear publicly. He’s also made this clear in his private meetings with Chancellor Sholtz, I’m sure he will do it next week at NATO as well, reiterating his priority of coming in and wanting to restore alliances. And Germany, I think, is is one of those countries where he has invested heavily…

ANY UPDATE ON US MILITARY VETS HELD BY RUSSIA, TALKS WITH BORIS JOHNSON?

I don’t have any updates on the status of that. And I think we just got here at about 1030 this morning. So the President as far as I’m aware, has been I think he’s probably interacting with Boris Johnson in now but but that would be the first conversation that they would have had so I can’t speak to what they may be speaking about now.’

ANY ERDOGAN MEETING RE FINLAND/SWEDEN

nothing to nothing to announce on that, you know. Continuing to very actively engage with the Turks with the Swedes and the Finns.

‘I spent a lot of time over the last couple of days working on that, Jake Sullivan has been actively involved. Secretary Blinken, you may have seen spoke to the Turkish foreign minister yesterday. So, continuing to do everything we can to work with all of the sides this issue. But nothing to announce that at this stage on on NATO.