Ukraine at Stake as Biden Takes Battle with Trump to G7

President Biden will seek to draw a sharp foreign policy contrast with Donald Trump this week at a G7 summit of major wealthy democracies in Italy, where several other leaders facing their own domestic political battles are gathering to bolster support for Ukraine and counter China's rising influence.

The annual Group of Seven nations summit will give Biden a high-profile setting to argue that the West should continue providing military aid to Kyiv to stymie Russian President Vladimir Putin's war aims in Ukraine.

But Biden will arrive at the G7 Summit locked in a difficult reelection campaign against Trump, who has vowed to undo much of the president's foreign policy agenda if he wins a second term in the White House. Several other heads of state at the summit also face uncertain political futures.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called an election for July 4 that polls show he is likely to lose. French President Emmanuel Macron called for a snap election in the French Parliament after his party was badly defeated by Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally party early this month in the European Parliament elections.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition also lost to a far-right party in the EU elections. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's party is mired in a political fundraising scandal, and Kishida is down in the polls ahead of his bid for reelection in September.

"This is not a normal G7" summit, said Josh Lipsky, the senior director of the Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center. "Several of the leaders are facing election, so it will look very different the next time this group gets together."

Ukraine will be at the center of the discussion at the summit, which will take place at a luxury resort on the Adriatic Sea in southern Italy.

Biden's case for staying the course will be bolstered by the recent passage in Congress of a large security package for Ukraine, and a decision by the administration to allow Kyiv to use some U.S. weapons to strike limited targets inside Russia.

"He can take credit for that, but given where the situation is in Ukraine it's a bit too soon to say mission accomplished or to claim victory," said Thomas Graham, a former senior Russia adviser on the National Security Council.

Biden and his G7 allies are expected to make new pronouncements of international support for Ukraine. The Biden administration is planning to announce plans to unlock frozen Russian assets that would help pay for Ukraine's reconstruction, according to White House officials. Biden and President Volodymyr Zelensky are also scheduled to hold a press conference Thursday at the summit.

"Our commitment to Ukraine will continue to be right up front and clear," at the summit, National Security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters on a call previewing the summit. "We will take bold steps to show Mr. Putin that time is not on his side and that he cannot outlast us."

Still, it's unlikely that the summit will result in any concrete agreements that would swiftly change the contours of the war, Graham and others said.

"[Biden's] policy seems pretty clear that he doesn't want Ukraine to lose, but also increasingly clear he doesn't want to do what it takes to allow Ukraine to win," John Bolton, a former national security adviser in the Trump administration, told Newsweek.

Aid for Ukraine

Ukraine has started to receive the military aid that U.S. lawmakers approved earlier this year following a months-long debate in Congress. Kyiv is preparing to defend against a potential new Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

But Biden said last week that the funding delay weakened Ukraine on the battlefield. The remarks, during a trip to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, represented an acknowledgment by the president that electoral politics in the U.S. were impacting his ability to conduct foreign policy.

The aid to Ukraine was held up by a small group of conservative Trump allies in Congress who share the former president's vision of America's role in the world.

As a 2024 candidate, Trump has said he would encourage Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" to NATO members that don't meet their defense spending obligations. Trump also vowed to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours without providing any details.

Trump and Biden's foreign policy differences on other issues beyond Ukraine will also form part of the political backdrop to the G7 summit.

Trump took an aggressive stance on trade with China, imposing steep tariffs on steel and other Chinese imports. Biden has kept some of those measures in place, while also calling at times for a less combative approach to dealing with China on matters of trade and economic policy.

The G7 leaders issued a joint statement at the 2023 summit in Japan expressing concern over China's use of economic coercion to wield influence in developing countries. But Biden and his allies were careful not to criticize China directly, in a sign of the tense relations between the West and Beijing.

Tension with China may be unavoidable at the summit this year, even though China won't be represented at the summit despite having one of the world's largest economies.

The leaders of Brazil, India and Turkey have been invited to attend as observer nations, a move widely interpreted as an effort by the G7 nations to isolate China on the world stage.

"If you're China it's pretty hard to look at these meetings as anything other than an anti-China block," said Rachel Rizzo, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

The Israel-Hamas conflict will also be on the G7 agenda. The summit takes place as the U.S. and others urge both sides to reach a ceasefire agreement to end the fighting in Gaza.

Hamas on Tuesday said it submitted a response seeking some "amendments" to the latest ceasefire proposal. The U.S. said it was evaluating the group's response.