Leaders of the G7 met this week in Évian-les-Bains, France, for a summit that opened Monday and ended Wednesday, focused on Ukraine, a possible deal with Iran, dependence on China, global trade and artificial intelligence. But the microphones left on in the meeting rooms also captured a stream of unscripted moments, from jokes about sports and weather to cigarette breaks and even Greenland.
One of the most notable scenes came when Donald Trump arrived late to a session with the other leaders waiting around an oval table. Just before the discussion turned to fears of subsidized Chinese goods flooding markets, the U.S. president smiled and said, “I’m the boss!”, drawing laughter. Another conversation centered on Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked whether she had smoked that morning. Meloni said she had not smoked since May 1, prompting cheers from leaders including Canada, Britain, Japan and the European Union. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney asked whether she was using a nicotine patch.
Meloni’s smoking habit has surfaced before. At the Sharm el-Sheikh summit in Egypt last October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joked that he needed to convince her to quit, and Meloni replied, “I know.” Reports then said she joked that giving up cigarettes might make her “kill someone.” She also shared a lighter moment at the summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, joking that they were the “most famous couple on Instagram,” a nod to the recurring “Melodi” meme.
Other offhand exchanges touched on football, the upcoming World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, Trump’s UFC event at the White House on his 80th birthday, and Greenland. Trump was also heard speaking with European Council President Antonio Costa about “Greenland,” reviving concern over his past talk of buying or taking over the Danish autonomous territory. After lunch, Carney noticed that Macron had apparently left his watch behind, and Trump joked that he could have it if Macron was already gone. Macron also gave each of the seven other leaders bicycles to promote next year’s world cycling championship in the French Alps, while Merz gifted Trump a Germany national team shirt marked “47.”
Behind the banter, the summit produced substantive decisions. The G7 pledged continued support for Ukraine and its territorial integrity, and said it would intensify pressure on Russia’s war economy, including tougher sanctions on the Russian oil and gas sectors. The leaders also welcomed the emerging U.S.-Iran deal as a “historic opportunity” to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and to address its regional activity and ballistic missile program, stressing that Iran will “never” get a nuclear weapon.
The summit also targeted Western dependence on China for critical minerals. The leaders agreed to deepen coordination through stockpiling, recycling and a new market-risk monitoring platform, aiming by 2030 to cut reliance on any single supplier of rare metals and permanent magnets to below 60%. They also adopted measures on migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo and Uganda, and child protection online, including calls for default safety tools, parental controls and safeguards in tech platforms and conversational AI systems.
