QUEBEC CITY—Rifts in the G7 opened wide Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump called for the re-entry of Russia into the exclusive group and publicly slammed the trade practices of his allies.

But efforts continued well into the evening to bridge the gaps, with Trump himself joking the G7 could reach a joint final statement — something that many of the other leaders felt was in doubt — after all.

Throwing gas onto fires already lit by his steel and aluminum trade tariffs hit his G7 allies, the U.S. president told reporters ahead of his arrival that he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin should be invited to rejoin the fold, three years after Russia was booted out for annexing Crimea.

“It may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run,” Trump said in Washington. “And, in the G7, which used to be the G8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in, because we should have Russia at the negotiating table.”

However, once leaders went behind closed doors for what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said would be “frank” talks about how to tackle economic inequality and create good jobs, Trump’s tone changed and was very “cordial,” according to Canadian officials.

Trump engaged in discussions with the others, and it “was a good opening,” said one government official, speaking on background.

Read more:

Opinion | Tony Burman: Justin Trudeau’s G7 address to Donald Trump, uncensored

Merkel proposes trade dispute body as G7 summit begins

Canada, France forge united front ahead of G7 summit with Trump as the U.S. president’s tweets grow strident

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the topic of reinviting Russia — a non-starter for Canada and most other G7 leaders — wasn’t raised at the early sessions of the leaders’ roundtable, nor were Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs. Tariffs did arise at a later session, with another Canadian official characterizing those talks as frank but constructive. “Everyone was able to express their disagreement” and “different paths to follow,” said the official.

One senior Canadian official who spoke on background said Trudeau used the example of CFB Bagotville, where Trump’s plane landed Friday, to spell out why Canadians were so angry at Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada.

“Why is Bagotville there? Bagotville is there to protect aluminum smelters that were building American warplanes in the Second World War,” Trudeau told Trump and his officials, according to the Canadian official with direct knowledge of the discussions.

“We’ve always had a different relationship and I honestly don’t think they anticipated the blowback they got from this.”

The prime minister pressed Trump to drop the tariffs that threaten prices and jobs on both sides of the border, the official said. Their discussion turned to the North American Free Trade Agreement and the two agreed to try to accelerate the currently stalled talks, the official added.

Reuters reported German Chancellor Angela Merkel had proposed a mechanism to resolve trade disputes with the U.S. and avoid future ones.

Yet Trump’s statements about the G7, his singling out of Canada over diary tariffs and personal shots at Trudeau — whom he described as “so indignant” — exposed a gulf.

The European leaders joined Canada to quickly throw cold water on Trump’s Russia suggestion — except for Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

A political novice and populist leader, Conte vaulted to power two weeks ago to lead a coalition government and now finds himself seated at a table of powerful leaders. The G7 newcomer tweeted, “I agree with the President …. Russia should be back in the G8. It’s in everyone’s interest.”

But even Putin appeared uninterested in returning to the group, according to a Russian news service report that quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov saying, “Russia is focused on other formats, apart from the G7.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

European leaders said Trump’s trade moves posed a real risk to G7 unity and its effectiveness as a standard bearer for liberal democracy and fundamental freedoms.

“What worries me most is the fact that the rules-based international order is being challenged, quite surprisingly, not by the usual suspects but by its main architect and guarantor, the U.S.,” said European Council President Donald Tusk.

Tusk, like the other leaders here, still strove to find common ground. He insisted “there is still much more that unites us than divides us. It is far too early for our adversaries and enemies to celebrate.”

Efforts to bridge the gaps continued all day and into the evening when talks later turned to international security, where Trump is the one looking for allies on North Korea in advance of his Singapore summit meeting with President Kim Jong Un.

In front of the cameras, the G7 leaders smiled and made nice.

Despite the tweeted jabs at his G7 host, Trump greeted Trudeau warmly and joked before their one-on-one meeting that standing for a photo together was “the Academy Awards.”

“You know, Justin has agreed to cut off all tariffs and all trade barriers between Canada and the United States so I’m very happy about that,” Trump quipped.

Trudeau was quick to parry: “So I’d say NAFTA is in good shape.”

Trump turned serious, addressing NAFTA, saying he and Trudeau had “made a lot of progress today.”

A Canadian official later told reporters the two had talked about accelerating the stalled NAFTA talks but declined to give details.

Trump mused that NAFTA could be rewritten, broken up into separate bilateral agreements, and become a “much simpler agreement, much easier to do, I think better for both countries.”

And he added that the Canada-U. S. relationship — rocked by Trump’s citing national security as a premise to levy steel and aluminum tariffs — “is probably as good or better than it’s ever been and I think we’ll get to something very beneficial to Canada and to the United States.”

Trump has made no secret of his reluctance to come to the Charlevoix summit and now plans to leave the G7 a few hours early Saturday, after a breakfast with a gender equality advisory council, missing sessions on plastic pollution of the oceans, climate change and energy policy.

Trump’s behaviour drew sharp criticism from U.S. Sen. John McCain.

“The President has inexplicably shown our adversaries the deference and esteem that should be reserved for our closest allies,” said McCain in a statement issued by his office. “Those nations that share our values and have sacrificed alongside us for decades are being treated with contempt. This is the antithesis of so-called ‘principled realism’ and a sure path to diminishing America’s leadership in the world.”

Read more about: