GERMANY PERSPECTIVE

Berlin, June 15, 2026. As G7 leaders gather in the French spa town from June 15-17, German media weighs every signal with methodical sobriety. The central finding is straightforward: the entire summit revolves around one question—how to keep Donald Trump in good spirits. "The host country's primary task will be for Emmanuel Macron to keep the American president in good disposition, to handle him diplomatically, as one might say," summarizes Tagesschau. The reference carries weight: in 2025, Trump left the Canadian summit early, a scenario Paris and Berlin are determined to avoid at any cost.

To manage Washington's sensitivities, the summit schedule itself was revised. The opening was delayed by one day to avoid conflicting with the American president's eightieth birthday celebrations in Washington. Only on this condition, notes Tagesschau, did Trump finally accept the invitation to the state dinner at the Palace of Versailles, scheduled for Wednesday evening to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence.

On substance, the FAZ underscores that the official agenda covers major global economic imbalances: China's trade surplus, European underinvestment, strategic raw material supply security, American debt. Climate issues, however, were quietly removed from the agenda—a de facto concession to Washington's line.

The Iran-US agreement, announced on the eve of the summit, constitutes the other dominant topic of reflection. According to the FAZ and Tagesschau, the two countries agreed on a framework providing for the progressive reopening of the Strait of Hormuz within thirty days, lifting the American maritime blockade of Iranian ports, and authorizing Tehran to sell its oil without sanctions during the forthcoming nuclear negotiations. The official signing ceremony is scheduled for Friday in Switzerland. The FAZ, in a nuanced analysis, notes that Trump's balance sheet remains mixed: at the origin of the conflict launched on February 28, he had still invoked regime change and the "liberation of the Iranian people"—an objective that has since vanished from his discourse.

Deutsche Welle raises a more structural question: does the G7 format still reflect actual power dynamics? Diana Panke, professor at the Free University of Berlin, judges the framework still relevant as an "informal meeting of major liberal democracies," but acknowledges the absence of China, the new commercial superpower. On the summit's margins, approximately twenty thousand protesters marched in Geneva—the city hosting delegation arrivals—under the banner "No G7," denouncing according to Tagesschau the failure to address climate crises and global inequality. Swiss authorities mobilized over seven thousand police and soldiers, fearing clashes comparable to those of 2003.