Fresh off France trip, Biden heads back to Europe for G7 summit to talk Ukraine support, migration
President Joe Biden is heading to Italy for a meeting with his counterparts from the world’s leading democracies
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden heads to Italy on Wednesday for a summit of the world's leading democracies with an urgency to get big things done, including turning frozen Russian assets into billions of dollars to help Ukraine as it fights off Russian President Vladimir Putin's war machine.
This year's Group of Seven summit comes three years after Biden declared at his first such gathering that America was back as a global leader following the disruptions to Western alliances that occurred under President Donald Trump. Now, there's a chance this gathering could be the final G7 for Biden and other G7 leaders, depending on the results of elections this year.
Biden and his counterparts from Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan will use the summit to discuss challenges related to the spread of artificial intelligence, migration, the Russian military’s resurgence and China's economic might, among other topics. Pope Francis, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are joining the gathering at the Borgo Egnazia resort in the Puglia, a region of southern Italy.
The summit, which opens Thursday, will play out after far-right parties across the continent racked up gains of surprising scale in just-concluded European Union elections. Those victories — coupled with upcoming elections in the United Kingdom, France and the United States — have rattled the global political establishment and added weightiness to this year's summit.
