https://edition.cnn.com/2018/06/09/politics/trump-justin-trudeau-g7-communique/index.html
In a set of angry tweets sent from Airforce One which is on route to Singapore for the Summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Trump angrily attacked Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau calling him “weak and dishonest”. Trump also reneged on a previously agreed joint communique saying “I have instructed our US Reps not to endorse the Communique as we look at Tariffs on automobiles flooding the US Market!”.
The office of the Canadian prime minister responded by pointing out that “The primie minister said nothing he hasn’t said before - both in public, and in private with the President”.
So what provoked Trump’s extreme fury, and his damaging volte-face in tearing up a diplomatic agreement that he had only just signed off on? The full text of the Charlevoix G7 Summit communique can be found here —>
https://g7.gc.ca/en/official-documents/charlevoix-g7-summit-communique/
One section that catches the eye is paragraph #17:
We urge Russia to cease its destabilizing behaviour to undermine democratic systems and its support of the Syrian regime. We condemn the attack using a military-grade nerve agent in Salisbury, United Kingdom. We share and agree with the United Kingdom’s assessment that it is highly likely that the Russian Federation was responsible for the attack, and that there is no plausible alternative explanation. We urge Russia to live up to its international obligations, as well as its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to uphold international peace and security. Notwithstanding, we will continue to engage with Russia on addressing regional crises and global challenges, where it is in our interests. We reiterate our condemnation of the illegal annexation of Crimea and reaffirm our enduring support for Ukrainian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity within its internationally-recognized borders. We maintain our commitment to assisting Ukraine in implementing its ambitious and necessary reform agenda. We recall that the continuation of sanctions is clearly linked to Russia’s failure to demonstrate complete implementation of its commitments in the Minsk Agreements and respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and we fully support the efforts within the Normandy Format and of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for a solution to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Should its actions so require, we also stand ready to take further restrictive measures in order to increase costs on Russia. We remain committed to support Russian civil society and to engage and invest in people-to-people contact.
Trump had previously antagonised other G7 leaders by loudly declaring that Russia should be re-admitted to the summit without any preconditions in spite of having been explicitly excluded in 2014 over its annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Paragraph #17 of the G7 communique with its explict reference to Russia’s complicity in using the Novichok nerve agent in an attack on British soil was the chosen response of the G7 to Trump’s braggadocio. It seems that it was not to Moscow’s taste.