Wars in Gaza, Ukraine loom over G7 summit as Trudeau heads to Italy

The prime minister travels to Italy today to meet with world leaders as wars in Gaza and Ukraine cast a shadow over this year's G7 summit.

«This is a moment of real uncertainty,» said Roland Paris, a former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and an international affairs professor at the University of Ottawa. «Uncertainty about the future of Ukraine, uncertainty about the fate of democracy.

»So it's really important for these leaders to come together and demonstrate that they can do something in response to these challenges."

The annual international forum brings together seven of the world's advanced economies — Canada, the U.S., the U.K, Italy, France, Germany and Japan — and the European Union for informal group conversations and one-on-one talks.

The three-day summit that starts Thursday is particularly significant this year, Paris said, because there is «much more competition and disagreement in the world» and many global institutions are no longer working «very effectively.»

Many observers say the G7 could project an image of unity by finding a new way to fund Ukraine's ongoing fight against Russia.

But G7 leaders could also struggle to come to a consensus on the conflict in Gaza, which could overshadow the official agenda, said Thomas Juneau, an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Ottawa.

• Disputes among G7 nations may prevent consensus on a path to peace in Gaza: experts

«It will be a bit difficult because there is a number of divergences of views between Europeans and the Americans in particular, but even within Europe,» said Juneau. «It will definitely be a challenge for the G7 not to be derailed in some ways by what's going to happen in Gaza.»

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