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President Trump travels to Evian, France, next week for a G7 Summit. It was originally expected to be a meeting focused on a variety of separate economic and security issues, but it has been overtaken by concerns over surging energy costs as well as differences over the escalating conflict with Iran. NPR's Franco Ordoñez reports.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: The bubbling tensions between the U.S. and its G7 allies over the war in Iran exploded into public view a few weeks ago, when Trump announced the withdrawal of at least 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany during a clash between the Europeans over their reluctance to support the U.S.-led war in Iran.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We defend all these countries. And then, do you have any minesweepers? And they say, well, would it be possible for us not to get involved?
ORDOÑEZ: The decision was partially reversed with the troops redirected to Poland, but the episode illustrated what diplomats describe as the real security consequences of embarrassing or crossing the president. Constanze Stelzenmuller, a trans-Atlantic security expert at the Brookings Institution, said leaders will carry that lesson into any meetings with President Trump at the summit.
CONSTANZE STELZENMULLER: Any meeting that includes the president raises the prospect of significant uncertainty. The president's volatility is legendary. He could get upset very quickly. He can be charming at other times, and he can whiplash between one and the other.
ORDOÑEZ: Yet some analysts say the friction in the relationship has had some unintended consequences, strengthening European cohesion. Repeated U.S. pressure over trade, defense spending and security policy has pushed European governments closer together and led to greater strategic autonomy.
NATHALIE TOCCI: Europeans are in a much better place now than they were a year ago.
ORDOÑEZ: Nathalie Tocci, a former top EU foreign policy adviser, now at Johns Hopkins, said repeated U.S. threats - many of which were acted on - have forced Europe to adapt.
TOCCI: There is less bending of the knee going on, and there's more willingness to politely be firm on certain issues.
ORDOÑEZ: Yet they're still in a bind because of Trump's war and the economic fallout. Brett Bruen, who served at the National Security Council during the Obama administration, said the war is now unavoidable in the leaders' discussions.
BRETT BRUEN: There is no doubt that Iran is going to dominate the agenda at Evian. It is going to be both a military and security challenge. It's a major economic challenge, but it's also a political challenge.
ORDOÑEZ: The United Kingdom is working with France to build a coalition of nations to help with the demining of the Strait of Hormuz once a peace deal is reached. Trump has also said that he expects European and other Western countries who depend on the strait to have a role. But Trump has other priorities he wants to focus on as well. At the top of the pile are strengthening economic ties, investment partnerships and the critical mineral supply chain, as well as other global pressing issues such as innovation, AI and addressing the Ebola outbreak. Still, the divide comes at a moment of heightened global risk, which observers like Brett Bruen - who will be meeting with G7 officials at the summit - say have shown the limits of an America First approach to a global crisis.
BRUEN: We're seeing how a single country can create such military, economic and political hardship for us due to the fact that we are so isolated.
ORDOÑEZ: And he says if the U.S. can't contain a smaller power like Iran, then how will it push back on a larger power if needed?
Franco Ordoñez, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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