With or without the shengxiao, you might as well take another look at the olive trees and stone arch bridges south of Bari.
Text | Haike
The Western Group of Seven (G7) leaders' summit will be held at a resort in Puglia, southern Italy, for three days starting from June 13, local time.
What's interesting is that this year's G7 summit is different from the past. It is said to be "the least influential G7 summit in history", but it has made a lot of headlines. However, many of them turned out to be the favorite gossips of the tabloids, and there really is no one left!
In this year’s G7, Ukrainian President Zelensky attended the meeting to discuss new countermeasures against Russia.
Of course, there were various proposals during the meeting to freeze Russian overseas assets, continue to vigorously assist Ukraine, and the United States to sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine. Eye-popping.
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When it comes to gossip, the most gossipy thing is this scene captured by a photographer -
Meloni (right) welcomes Sunak (left)
When welcoming British Prime Minister Sunak to the meeting, Italian Prime Minister Meloni Give him a kiss on the face.
Uncle Hai would like to say that in the West, the kiss on the face is quite normal. Even though Sunak is of Indian descent, he has already mastered these common etiquettes.
The key is that the man and woman under the camera are holding hands and eye to eye. One is affectionate and the other is affectionate. What should I do?
No wonder some Western comments can’t stand it anymore. They point out that when the conflict between Israel and Pakistan has not yet been resolved and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is getting worse, is it necessary for the leaders of Britain and Italy to do this in public?
Some people also believe that this is Sunak kissing Meloni goodbye.
Various opinion polls show that the Conservative Party led by Sunak is likely to lose to the Labor Party in the next British general election. As a result, he is not far away from leaving No. 10 Downing Street. The UK still doesn’t know who will come to the G7 summit next year.
also has friends who are bad enough to comment on the photos taken at the 2024 G7 Summit. In addition to the discussion that Sunak will be dismissed soon, there are also these materials -
g7 Participants have their own hardships
Trudeau has the lowest support rate for Canadian Prime Minister in 50 years;
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida only has 26% support Rate;
German Chancellor Scholz just lost the election;
French President Macron also just lost the election;
European Council President Michel and European Commission President von der Leyen are not elected European bureaucrats.
As for US President Biden, he is too old to stand it.
In the photo session of G7 leaders, the comments were really on point. Biden once again showed his age. Leaders of other companies lined up their seats and prepared to talk about eggplant to the camera, but Biden suddenly left the team with his hands raised in confusion and went in the opposite direction. Fortunately, Meloni, as the host, kept Biden's words in mind, "Be nice to me." Meloni, who was the furthest away from Biden in the photo line, stepped forward and pulled Biden back to the camera.
Meloni only started taking pictures after pulling Biden back
Of course, like Sunak, whether he will be able to participate in next year's G7 summit is also unknown for the current US president. Biden has already announced that after the G7 summit, he will not attend the Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland, but is preparing to rush back to the country to raise funds for the campaign.
Uncle Hai would like to say that there is a reason why Biden is rushing back to China. On June 13, local time, former U.S. President Trump arrived at the U.S. Congress, listened to Republican lawmakers sing happy birthday to him, and enjoyed a birthday cake. This is the first time Trump has returned to the U.S. Congress since the "King Qin Army" occupied Capitol Hill. It has more or less indexical meaning. Of course, Biden is afraid that unimaginable situations will arise if he doesn't go back.
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Meloni, the
g7 leader of the host country, caused a minor commotion in Italy. They discussed and announced that they would freeze Russia's assets in the West and use their profits as collateral to provide Ukraine with a $50 billion loan.
Uncle Hai would like to say that the reason why the West did not do this at the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is because most of Russia's overseas assets are in Europe.If it freezes, Europe will actually be the first to be threatened. After all -
Russia may not be unable to reduce its own losses through various means;
Russia can also retaliate against Europe and even confiscate the assets of some European countries in Russia;
Russia itself has fewer assets in the United States than in Europe. Even if such an asset freeze occurs, the impact and losses on the economic exchanges between the United States and Russia that still exist will certainly not be as great as that on Europe.
What benefits does Ukraine get? Get some cash and use the interest on Russia's frozen overseas assets as collateral. That is to further deepen the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. This depends on what Russia and Ukraine are fighting for and whether the conflict can be ended in the short term.
The knot is getting tighter and tighter, and it looks more and more like the West is beginning to use more economic means to intervene in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Of course, G7 itself is holding a meeting in the name of economic issues. Playing economic tricks is really their "job".
However, Russia refuses to admit defeat. At the previous St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Putin patted his chest and said that Russia's economic size has jumped to the fourth in the world. The more we fight, the more money we make. What is the rhythm? Anyway, it seems that the "peaks" of g7 are incomprehensible.
Looking at the recent European Parliament elections, the far right occupies more seats. There are various comments in the newspapers. The vast majority still believe that the economic deterioration of EU countries has led to this situation.
As the only far-right leader of G7, what will Meloni think when riding in the car?
EU, of course, also wants to try various "boxing techniques". Recently, the long-simmering case of imposing tariffs on new energy vehicles from China was finally thrown out. However, Uncle Hai carefully compared and found that the probability of empty ammunition was extremely high.
Previously, when it came to new energy vehicles in China, French car companies were the most aggressive, while German car companies lacked momentum. The reason is simple. German brand cars, especially their fuel cars, are selling well in China. The problem is that even without Chinese new energy vehicles entering Europe, would French car companies have an easier time?
Nowadays, the tax increase is said to be a bootstrap, but it has various "one-on-one" individual negotiations and additional conditions, etc. In fact, it dilutes the overall tariff increase case.
China and the EU are trading partners with in-depth cooperation. If the EU is in trouble for a long time, it is very likely that it will not be able to reap the benefits of the new energy vehicle tariff case against China.
On the other hand, g7 needs to look at cooperation with countries such as BRICS. To put it bluntly, as old industrialized countries, these seven countries must not be jealous of cooperation with emerging economies. As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, the UK currently does not even have a decent steelmaking plant. In this case, it still calls itself an industrial country. But we can’t come up with more new energy and new materials. We only hear about de-industrialization but not new-type industrialization. In the end, all we can do is exchange agricultural products with other companies.
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Anyway, it seems to be the farewell season. Meloni's kiss to Sunak was obviously a kiss of welcome, but it was actually a farewell kiss.
Biden also wants to leave.
The seven Western countries are no longer the leaders in world industrialization, or the "advanced representatives" accounting for half of the global industrial output value. No matter how much we discussed, we finally had to part ways in the resort town of Puglia.
With or without the shengxiao, you might as well take another look at the olive trees and stone arch bridges south of Bari.
