As leaders of the world’s major industrialized economies prepare to gather in southern France for next week’s G7 summit, new details have emerged about the packed diplomatic agenda awaiting former U.S. President Donald Trump, including a high-profile celebratory dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the iconic Palace of Versailles.
Senior White House administration officials, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity under the White House’s established press ground rules, confirmed Saturday that the summit will bring a full slate of one-on-one bilateral meetings for Trump, who has publicly stated he is working to finalize a new Iran nuclear agreement in the coming days. Trump is set to depart Washington D.C. on Sunday evening immediately after marking his 80th birthday with a primetime mixed martial arts event hosted on the White House South Lawn, and will arrive in France for the summit on Monday afternoon.
Following the conclusion of the main G7 gathering in the scenic Alpine lakeside town of Evian-les-Bains, Macron will host Trump for a private dinner at Versailles, the opulent former royal residence just outside Paris that has long stood as a symbol of Franco-American diplomatic ties. According to the Élysée Palace, the dinner will also commemorate the 240th anniversary of U.S. independence, an occasion chosen to highlight the deep historical friendship between the two nations.
Versailles, which served as the official seat of the French monarchy from the reign of Louis XIV through Louis XVI, is a regular venue for state visits and meetings with visiting global leaders. In 2021, Macron welcomed Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla to the palace for its 400th-anniversary celebrations, hosting a state dinner in the palace’s famous Hall of Mirrors, one of the most famous spaces among the sprawling estate’s 2,300 rooms. Prior to that, in 2017 shortly after his first election to the presidency, Macron welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Versailles, a meeting that took place before relations between Paris and Moscow collapsed entirely following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Beyond his scheduled meeting with Macron, Trump is also set to hold separate bilateral talks with the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and India. All four nations have been invited to participate in this year’s summit as guest countries at Macron’s request.
The 2025 G7 summit, which brings together leaders from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan, will cover a wide range of pressing global policy topics. Officials confirm the agenda includes discussions on sustainable global economic growth, securing resilient supply chains for critical minerals needed for the energy transition, addressing irregular cross-border migration, and establishing global guardrails for artificial intelligence development.
Two ongoing conflicts are expected to dominate much of the off-agenda and bilateral conversation: the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and escalating tensions around Iran. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is confirmed to attend the summit to meet with G7 leaders, but administration officials noted that no formal bilateral meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy has been added to the U.S. president’s official schedule as of Saturday. The pair could still hold an informal meeting on the summit sidelines, officials added.
The report was compiled from contributions by AP correspondent Petrequin, reporting from London, and fellow AP writer Aamer Madhani.