US relations with closest allies fall to new lows

Relations between the US and its closest allies plunged to new depths on Sunday after the most acrimonious G7 summit in a generation ended with the American president lashing out at fellow leaders and backtracking on a pledge to sign the G7 communiqué.

The west was in disarray after Donald Trump left the summit early, instructed his officials to tear up the bland G7 statement, threatened to impose more tariffs and called the Canadian prime minister “very dishonest and weak”.

As Mr Trump landed in Singapore on Air Force One to prepare for a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, his advisers continued the attack on western allies and, in particular, Justin Trudeau. The Canadian prime minister and G7 chair had described the US tariffs on steel and aluminium as “insulting”.

Larry Kudlow, new head of the National Economic Council, accused Mr Trudeau of betraying the US. He told CNN: “He really kind of stabbed us in the back.”

Peter Navarro, Mr Trump’s trade adviser, ratcheted up the rhetoric, telling Fox News Sunday: “There’s a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J Trump”.

Germany and France presented a united front. Berlin’s economy minister said “the west does not break up so easily” while an Elysée aide said global co-operation “cannot depend on bouts of anger or words”.

A frustrated Emmanuel Macron, French president, wrote in a tweet late on Saturday that an “isolated” US faced a “united front” from its allies.

Learning that Mr Trump had walked away from a “painstakingly negotiated communiqué” was “a sobering experience”, Angela Merkel, German chancellor, said in a television interview on Sunday night.

Ms Merkel added that the fact that the US president was putting “America first, we must ourselves fight for our values”.

Her office had earlier released a revealing picture showing a stand-off between her and Mr Trump at the G7, surrounded by the other leaders.

The EU and Canada have vowed to retaliate against the US steel tariffs, taking action at the World Trade Organization and imposing equivalent tariffs on sensitive American products such as bourbon whiskey, Harley-Davidson motorbikes and peanut butter.

Instead of the usual bonhomie and agreement on global economic measures, the G7 has not been as divided in its 45-year history.

Mr Trump was a solitary figure as the leaders of the west’s other large democracies united to criticise his actions that risk starting a global trade war. After Mr Trump rejected the G7’s tortuously negotiated compromise communiqué, he threatened to impose more tariffs on cars that he tweeted were “flooding the US market”.

The disunity contrasted on Sunday with the smooth running of the leaders’ summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a 17-year-old grouping of Asian nations, originally centred around China and Russia. Xi Jinping, China’s president, won support for a pledge to abide by WTO rules and the multilateral global trading system. He said: “We should reject selfish, short-sighted, narrow and closed-off policies”.

The delicate compromise on whether all the G7 leaders supported “a rules-based international trading system” was thrown out by the US president when he was irritated by the closing statement given by Mr Trudeau.

“Based on Justin’s false statements at his news conference, and the fact that Canada is charging massive Tariffs to our US farmers, workers and companies, I have instructed our US Reps not to endorse the Communique,” he tweeted.

Shinzo Abe, Japanese prime minister, said there were moments of “intense debate” during the summit and Theresa May, UK prime minister, registered “deep disappointment at the unjustified decision by the US to apply tariffs to EU steel and aluminium imports”.

Having begun the summit with an unpopular call for Russia to be readmitted to the G7, the US president tweeted after his early departure that he looked forward to “a truly wonderful result for North Korea and the World” from his meeting on Tuesday with Mr Kim.