Trump to meet on Mideast and Ukraine at G7

Trump to meet on Mideast and Ukraine at G7
President Donald Trump will attend the G7 in France, White House officials have confirmed. -AP

US President ‌Donald Trump will meet with Middle Eastern leaders and attend a working session with Ukrainian ‌President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the G7 summit in France next week, senior US administration officials said.

Trump is scheduled to travel to Evian, France, for the G7 summit early on Monday after attending Sunday's mixed martial arts event at the White House.

He will speak to a number of European leaders with whom he has squabbled over trade, ‌tariffs, Ukraine and NATO ‌since his ⁠return to the White House early in 2025. Trump will ​participate in a working session on Tuesday with Zelenskiy and G7 leaders.

The meeting comes at a time when Russian advances in Ukraine have slowed and Ukraine seeks more military funding from its allies.

One of the senior US officials, who briefed reporters on condition of ⁠anonymity about Trump's trip, said Russian gains have "more ‌or ​less stopped."

"We want the war to end as quickly as possible," the official said on Saturday.

Trump ​has had up-and-down ‌relations with Zelenskiy. No bilateral meeting was planned with Zelenskiy but the two ​leaders could meet on the sidelines of the summit, the officials added.

They said Trump would meet separately with the leaders of Egypt, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, ​France ​and India.

Trump planned to raise ​issues of shared importance with leaders at the ‌summit, including economic growth and development, supply chain resilience, illegal migration and AI, one of the officials said.

He also planned to work on boosting resilience in the supply chain for critical minerals needed for advanced technologies.

Trump planned to attend a dinner with ​French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles on Wednesday before returning to Washington, ​the officials said.