World leaders gather for G7 summit in France

Summit takes place against backdrop of US-China trade war, UK’s impending exit from EU, and concern over Amazon fires.

World leaders are gathering in France for the G7 summit, a meeting that European Council President Donald Tusk said will be a “difficult test of unity and solidarity of the free world and its leaders”.

The annual gathering of the G7 nations, some of the world’s key industrial countries, is set to begin on Saturday in the French coastal town of Biarritz.

Thousands of anti-G7 protesters rallied in the nearby town of Hendaye as leaders from Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States descended on Biarritz.

The three-day summit comes amid sharp differences over a range of global issues including trade and climate change. It is also taking place against the backdrop of an escalating trade war between the US and China, Britain’s impending exit from the European Union, growing tensions between US and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme and global concern over illegal fires ravaging the Amazon rain forest in Brazil.

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