Leaders of the Group of 7 advanced economies will be meeting this weekend in the French beach town of Biarritz. Some of the world's most pressing issues are on the agenda, ranging from the situation in Kashmir to fears of a global recession, to the ever-threatened Iran nuclear deal.
Wildfires in Amazon rainforest
As the host of this year's summit, French President Emmanuel Macron pushed one item to the top of the agenda – the blazes raging throughout the Amazon rainforest.
He tweeted, "Our house is burning," the fires are "an international crisis," and called on "G7 members to discuss this emergency first order" during the summit.
G8 and INF
But if anything was learned from last year's G7 in Canada, it's that Trump will overshadow the summit.
And now, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the mix, some are expecting this year's meeting to get messy.
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel (C), surrounded by other G7 leaders during a meeting of the G7 Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, June 9, 2018. /VCG Photo
François Heisbourg, senior advisor for Europe from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told media: "Whether this will be simply a side show, which will create some distraction and possibly even amusement, is one thing, but if it actually gets into the way of the more substantive proceedings, that would be another story. But these two together are political nitroglycerine."
Several disputes between the countries may come out during the course of the leaders' meeting.
But Trump has set his sight on a different issue – letting Russia back into the club and returning to the G8 format.
Moscow was expelled from the group in 2014 after Crimea rejoined the Russian Federation. But the U.S. president said Moscow should be made a member again to secure global stability.
"I think Russia should be a part of it because we're looking for world peace and other things, trade and other things. And it would be a lot easier to have Russia in where they had always been."
Special police officers of the G7 summit guard the hotel where the members of the summit will carry out all the scheduled events in Biarritz, France, August 22, 2019. /VCG Photo
Canada's already come out against the idea, saying Russia first needs to show it will act similarly to the like-minded members of the group.
While Trump is acting favorably to Moscow in that aspect, another item on the agenda is how he's ramping up tensions with Russia after leaving the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
Iran nuclear deal
Regarding the last topic, the G7 summit will attempt to de-escalate tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
The European Union members have been trying to save the nuclear deal that they signed in 2015 with Teheran.
Ahead of the summit, Macron met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday with the attempt to soothe tensions between Tehran and Washington at what risks being a stormy summit.
Earlier, Macron said: "We have made proposals either for a softening of sanctions or a compensation mechanism to enable the Iranian people to live better."
However, he did not elaborate on any concrete proposals. The Iranians insist that the country does not seek confrontation with the United States.
(CGTN's Stefan de Vries also contributed to the story.)