Oh, Trump is here and speaking now.
He begins with thanks to France’s Macron for a very successful G7 summit.
You can watch along live here:
Trump also says there was “a great deal of unity” on tackling irregular migration and drug trafficking at the G7 summit, with “a beautiful statement” on the latter.
Trump is back to script, and he moves on to Ukraine.
He says he had “a productive conversation” with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy and then Russia’s Putin on the phone.
He suggests “something is going to happen,” as he says Russia is losing more soldiers than Ukraine.
He says he had “a very good conversation” with Putin and “a very, very good conversation with Zelenskyy.
“I think they both want to do something. They just don’t know how to do it.”
He then swiftly moves on to international aid and the Ebola outbreak in Africa.
Trump also once again mentions Lebanon.
“The Lebanon peace is something we’ll have to work on a little bit. It’s a very small piece of the puzzle, actually, but it still makes a lot of noise.”
He says he hopes the peace agreement with Iran will be the beginning of a larger peace settlement across the Middle East.
Trump says he will work with the Gulf nations on “non-nuclear issues” but claims that maritime traffic through the strait of Hormuz “has already incrased very substantially” as a result of his political deal.
He then goes back to praising himself.
“What I’m doing and what I did should have been done years ago, would have been much easier, much less firepower, but it wasn’t.”
He says no US president in history has ever been tougher on Iran, before mentioning Suleimaini for the umpteenth time, and repeating his warning that if Iran doesn’t honour the deal, “we will probably go back to bombing them.”
Trump is still on Iran.
He says the deal will be signed shortly; maybe tomorrow, maybe Friday.
He is still praising himself for Iran and Suleimani, “one of the biggest event to happen in the Middle East, maybe ever.”
I will pick up any other lines when (if?) he eventually moves on.
But it’s worth noting a slight sense of frustration with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu as he says he “gets a little excited sometimes,” and they “have a little dispute over Lebanon.”
“Bibi, you don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah,” he says.
Trump swiftly pivots to Iran, saying his deal “achieves everything we set out to accomplish and … much more.”
“If we didn’t do this deal, we could have dropped more bombs for another three weeks, two weeks, four weeks, two years, you years, you would never have the Hormuz strait open, you would never have success,” he says.
He says he “didn’t want to see economic catastrophe. If you kept this going, that could have happened.”
He also pats himself on the back for killing Iranian leader Qassem Suleimani, saying it was pre-requisite for this deal.
He says the G7 summit was “a chance to discuss the details of this historic agreement,” and says he kept getting praise for it from all leaders he met.
Oh, Trump is here and speaking now.
He begins with thanks to France’s Macron for a very successful G7 summit.
You can watch along live here:
The office of European Council president António Costa has made “brief contacts at diplomatic level” with the Kremlin in recent weeks “to open communication channels”, an EU official said in comments reported by Reuters.
But “nothing was discussed on substance,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “In any future scenario, the EU has specific interests that will need to be defended, therefore it is important to have established diplomatic channels with Russia.”
The official added:
“The EU is not a mediator. It supports Ukraine in its efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace.“
We still think we are going to hear from Donald Trump this afternoon, too, before he leaves for Paris and the said dinner at the Palace of Versailles.
I am keeping an eye on this for you.
Macron takes a few questions on the deal with Iran and his views about the strait of Hormuz and Lebanon.
But in the penultimate question, he also gets asked about his relationship with Donald Trump, with the journalist suggesting Macron is on a charm offensive to get the US president on side – including through their formal dinner at the Palace of Versailles tonight.
Macron says he was always very open about areas where the pair disagreed – for example on Greenland or Ukraine – but it’s the nature of diplomacy that you work to figure it out. But whenever they agree on something, they follow through on that agreement.
He says the last two days show how much can be achieved when discussions are still being held, despite some past disagreements.
He says what matters is that he defends France’s interests, and, of course, hosting a dinner at the Palace of Versailles is part of broader diplomacy.
And on that point, we end the presser.
Macron says the discussions were “extremely frank” and “useful,” but ended with people’s positions “evolving” to help them “re-align” on Ukraine.
Here’s a picture of Macron taken during this press conference.
Macron defends the agreed wording on Ukraine, saying it goes quite far in its support for Ukraine.
He says the agreed language marks “a very profound shift in approach,” including a “clear willingness” of the US to work with Europeans to support Ukraine.
He also criticises Russia for showing no real intention to engage with the peace process.
Macron ends his statement talking about digital and AI.
He focuses on the need to protect children online – a big part of his political legacy in France – and to responsibly regulate AI.
“We all want innovation,” he says, but cannot ignore the risks to our democracies and societies.
He says key AI models must not fall into the hands of authoritarian regimes.
There is also a brief summary on other topics, but then he turns to Q&A – which kicks off with a question on Ukraine.
Macron also talks about the continuing support for Ukraine on energy infrastructure and its fight to stop Russia’s shadow fleet.
He says he is happy that the G7 ends with “such convergence” on Ukraine, which he hails as “real progress”.
He then moves to other topics, including the situation in the Middle East, stressing the G7’s backing for Trump’s Iran deal, and to efforts to fight Ebola.
I will keep monitoring for more Ukraine and Europe lines.
Turning to Ukraine, Macron says the leaders had an “in-depth” discussion on Ukraine, which allowed to “find significant areas of agreement.”
He stresses their “unwavering support for Ukraine,” and notes that “the balance of power has profoundly shifted in recent months” as “Ukraine is advancing and resisting; Russia is retreating.”
He says the leaders have agreed to increase the provision of air defence capabilities and systems to help Ukraine even further.
He also says the leaders backed Ukraine’s request for licensing arrangements so they can produce some of that equipment themselves.
Meanwhile, Macron says the G7 summit was a success, stressing it was held “against an extremely difficult backdrop of a fragmented world” – but it was a “moment of unity” as the leaders focused on areas for cooperation.
