This G-7 should be considered the worst meeting of the G-7 since the one in Japan in 1979, which also took place in the midst of a global energy crisis and rising inflation. The other factor that these two summits, 43 years apart, have in common: an American president who does not go out to eat. Both the 1979 meeting and this week’s meeting attempted to set up an oil buyer cartel to curb oil imports but with opposite goals in mind. In 1979, the G-7 wanted to limit imports from the Middle East (attempt failed immediately). Today the G-7 wants to limit imports from Russia (through indirect means of a “quota” equivalent to a quota) while begging the Middle East, and in particular the dominant producer Saudi Arabia, to increase oil exports to Russia. West. As in 1979, when the other G-7 leaders were tough on Jimmy Carter at the summit, this week Frenchman Emanuel Macron tried to speak softly to Joe Biden, who seems to be trying to emulate all of her mistakes. Carter’s policy. On the eve of President Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia to cultivate more oil, Macron advised Biden that the Saudis and other top Gulf producers are close to their current maximum capacity and therefore should not be in a position to even if they wanted to. President Joe Biden and world leaders from Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and Britain, as well as European Council and European Commission leaders, are attending a working meeting during the G7 Summit of Leaders. Brendan Smialowski / Photo Pool via President Joe Biden and President Emanuel Macron attend G7 Summit on 27 June 2022. Lukas Barth / Pool via AP National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan intervened to save Biden from what was to become a public embarrassment, as the subject of Macron’s advice was that the United States should reach an agreement, beginning to seek relief from our oilmen. France, it should be noted, is taking energy seriously, unlike neighboring Germany, which is in real danger of running out of gas next winter. Unlike Biden, the French government has not carried out demagogic attacks on its giant oil companies and recently announced its intention to build a new generation of nuclear power plants. While Biden is undoubtedly sincere in his desire to unite the G-7s behind tougher sanctions and boycotts of Russian energy, he seems to ignore the fact that Europe is looking for a way to save face in easing existing sanctions that threaten to hurt her own. economies more than Russia. Another parallel between Biden’s position and Carter’s sad times: Saudi Arabia has good reason to be deeply dissatisfied with the United States both times. In 1979, Saudi Arabia was outraged that the United States sat down – and even encouraged – the fall of the shah in Iran, thus handing over Iran to radical Islamists who have since destabilized the Middle East. The Saudis are outraged by Biden calling them moral monsters one day and begging for more oil at a lower price the next day, while reopening futile negotiations with Iran that will have only one result: an Iran with nuclear weapons. The Saudis have always pursued their oil policy with the Saudi personal interest in mind and will do so again now, although they may enjoy the sight of another stupid American president bowing and scratching in front of them. They may even long for the good old days of Jimmy Carter, as it sometimes seems to be Biden’s job to make Carter look comparatively handsome. Steven F. Hayward is a resident researcher at the Institute of Government Studies at UC Berkeley and the author of a new biography, “M. Stanton Evans: Conservative Intelligence, Apostle of Freedom. “
