In a display of geopolitical camaraderie that accomplished little but looked fantastic on Instagram, the leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies convened this week at the G7 summit, where they discussed a variety of pressing global issues and then decided to do mostly nothing about them, at least for now.
The summit, which brought together President Joe Biden and his equally jet-lagged counterparts from countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy and Japan, focused on heavy topics including the war in Ukraine, climate change, global economic instability and how many awkwardly staged group photos a group of suited adults can take before it just gets silly.
This year’s summit was hosted in Italy, a country historically known for hosting important things like the Roman Empire and now, evidently, high-level meetings that inevitably conclude with everyone agreeing in principle and then flying home to do exactly what they were already doing. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed her G7 guests with all the brisk charm of someone trying not to talk about Italian politics. Which, to be fair, is probably for the best.
The leaders issued a communique which was long on adjectives and short on verbs, particularly those that implied actual movement. The statement condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine, reiterated support for Kyiv, urged action on climate goals and raised concerns about artificial intelligence, though admittedly no one had a solid plan about what to do if the AI starts writing communiques better than they can.
President Biden, visibly awake and cognizant, used the opportunity to recommit to international alliances and shared democratic values, pronouncing “shared democratic values” with all the panache of a man who can say “shared democratic values” in his sleep and possibly just did. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron said something forceful in French and then looked incredulous when asked to repeat it. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz nodded sagely throughout, which may or may not have been the result of an earpiece delay.
In what might generously be called a meaningful gesture, the G7 leaders agreed to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild, rather like borrowing someone’s confiscated credit card to fix the window they broke. The mechanics of this plan remain delightfully vague, but it made for a good headline, which is what diplomacy is all about these days.
Elsewhere on the agenda, there was a deep and hand-wringing discussion about China’s global economic influence, which as usual ended with leaders squinting at each other uncomfortably and resolving to “monitor the situation” which is political code for “good luck with that.”
As the summit concluded with an obligatory group photo where everyone looked optimistic in that diplomat kind of way, the world remains largely the same as it was last week, just slightly warmer and with one more communique floating somewhere in the ether.
In the end, the world leaders left the summit with their talking points polished, their suits slightly wrinkled and their global challenges very much intact.
And as always, they agreed to meet again next year to not solve things even harder.