Group of Seven leaders found a brief patch of sunshine for their traditional family photo on Friday at a summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, but the mood at the meeting is somber as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears its sixteenth month.
(Bloomberg) — Group of Seven leaders found a brief patch of sunshine for their traditional family photo on Friday at a summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, but the mood at the meeting is somber as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nears its sixteenth month.
The conflict in Ukraine has resurrected fears about the buildup of nuclear arsenals, riven by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s periodic threats to use them in his invasion. That is all the more poignant for G-7 leaders given the site of their meeting is the city on which the US dropped a nuclear bomb in the dying days of World War II.
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After talks on ways to further support Ukraine and punish Russia, the leaders traveled to the Itsukushima Shrine, on an island in an inland sea near Hiroshima, for a walk around the site and to take their family photo. A broad, vermilion-hued structure that stretches out over the water, the shrine rang with the sound of Japanese traditional musicians as the leaders gathered near the water’s edge.
It had rained most of the day, but as they posed the sun had come out and was slowly setting over the water behind them.
President Joe Biden missed some of the tour, arriving for the final moments with the shrine’s chief priest. The US leader has been a low-key presence at the summit so far, spending time also on the phone with his advisers back home as he seeks to avert a crisis over the US debt ceiling.
Earlier Friday the leaders gathered in a rainy Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima to lay identical white wreaths and plant a tree, remembering the victims of the bombing of 1945.
Photos from G-7 meetings can provide a glimpse into the relationships between leaders. Some embrace effusively, others stay more at arms length. Sometimes two leaders get absorbed in discussion, almost forgetting the others are there. Each summit reflects the geopolitical dynamics at the time. But there is one thing the photos from these summits have in common — not a lot of women.
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Here’s a look at some other G-7 family photos in recent years:
The German Alps
The G-7 summit in 2022 was held very much in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just months earlier. Putin’s war dominated the discussions including penalties on Russia and aid for the government in Kyiv. While it was unusually warm and sunny, the mood was sober and the leaders united in their condemnation of Putin for his actions.
The British Seaside
The summit the previous year in the British region of Cornwall was by contrast a more jovial affair. The Covid-19 pandemic was still raging but it was the first time some of the leaders had met in person in a while, and they clearly enjoyed catching up.
The meeting risked being overtaken at one point by an odd Brexit-related dispute between the UK and France over….sausages. But behind the scenes some business was being done: A long time later it emerged the US, UK and Australia had struck a deal on the Cornish beaches to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
The Canadian Mountains
Compared to the Cornish sunshine, the 2018 summit in Canada was a testy one, even as the leaders attempted a collective show of cooperation in their family photo.
In reality, tensions were high as leaders sparred with then-US President Donald Trump on trade policy. They huddled late into the night to hash out a statement they could all agree to, producing some iconic images in the process.
But then Trump ripped up the communique on his way out: He told US officials not to endorse the statement and accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being dishonest on trade issues, unleashing Twitter posts saying the US would look at tariffs on automobiles he said were “flooding the U.S. market.”
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