Secretary of State Rubio meets his G7 colleagues in Paris for the first time since the start of the war on Iran.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Now, to how the rest of the world is reacting to President Trump’s decision to go to war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in France today for a G7 meeting. These are the world’s wealthiest democracies and long-standing U.S. allies. President Trump has expressed frustration repeatedly about the lack of support for the war in Iran from other countries, and he’s been particularly vocal about NATO countries. NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley is following this from Paris. So, Eleanor, who is Rubio meeting with? What will they be talking about?
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Well, A, Rubio’s meeting with his G7 counterparts. That’s the foreign ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada, all NATO members except for Japan. The meeting is meant to shrink the growing chasm that’s opened up between the Trump administration and some of the U.S.’ main Western allies. Rubio will likely try to enlist the Europeans’ help in the Iran war, especially in reopening the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passed before the conflict began. But it could prove difficult, given the lack of coordination by the Trump administration with European partners. This meeting also comes as Russia’s onslaught on Ukraine continues unabated.
MARTÍNEZ: And it’s a fascinating meeting because relationships with European nations are tense, and they have been for a while.
BEARDSLEY: Oh, yes. I mean, things have been fraught between the transatlantic allies since the beginning of President Trump’s second term. The U.S. has left Europe to deal with Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine and even cut Europeans out of peace talks, which are going nowhere, by the way, and Trump seems to have lost interest. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin continues attacking Ukraine with total impunity. Russia launched nearly a thousand drones on Ukraine Tuesday, one of its largest attacks of the war. And Trump is now absorbed in the new war in Iran, but the U.S. did not consult or even apprise its European allies before it began the attacks, so Europeans say they don’t know what U.S. goals are. So when President Trump asked them to help out on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, his request went unanswered.
I spoke with Alexandra de Hoop Scheffer, who’s head of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a nonpartisan policy organization. She says, in fact, the two wars in Ukraine and Iran are intersecting and show that the transatlantic allies need each other. Here she is.
ALEXANDRA DE HOOP SCHEFFER: On the one hand, Europeans still need a strong U.S. involvement – leadership and security guarantees – in the European theater. And on the other hand, in the Middle Eastern theater, the United States needs European allies. It needs the European base on European soil. It needs European military capabilities, and it also needs European diplomacy.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So if the U.S. has all these European needs, how likely is it that Europeans change their position and then step in to help Trump with Iran?
BEARDSLEY: Well, A, Europeans have been stunned by this war. You know, the German finance minister recently complained that Trump’s, quote, “misguided policies” are having a direct impact on European economies. And just yesterday, the OECD – that’s the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a grouping of the world’s largest economies also based in Paris – gave its revised economic assessment for the next two years. It predicted slower growth and higher inflation worldwide due to the war on Iran and the uncertainty around it. And de Hoop Scheffer says she thinks this summit offers a real opportunity to hit reset.
SCHEFFER: This is probably a moment, and I hope the G7 meeting will start this conversation to redefine the terms of this transatlantic partnership.
BEARDSLEY: So, you know, these G7 partners are going to be trying to reset that relationship. They’ll be looking first and foremost for a way to come together to de-escalate the Iran conflict and reopen these maritime routes. The entire global economy is being affected, so it’s very crucial how they’ll come back together and repair the damage that’s been done so they can work together again.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That’s NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. Eleanor, thank you.
BEARDSLEY: You’re welcome, A.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.