WHITE HOUSE - At a contentious summit where the United States stood apart from allies on many issues, including the Amazon fires, Russian membership and the tariff war with China, U.S. President Donald Trump did agree to support several Group of Seven initiatives, despite reports that his administration considered them "niche issues."
A senior administration official confirmed to VOA that the Trump administration signed several consensus documents, particularly in the area of gender equality, partnership with Africa and digital transformation.
The United States did not sign on to a $20 million aid offer from the G-7 to help the government of Brazil fight the Amazon rainforest fires.
The US stands ready to assist Brazil in efforts to combat fires in the Amazon. We didn’t agree to a G7 initiative that failed to include consultations w/ . The most constructive way to assist w/ Brazil's ongoing efforts is in coordination w/ the Brazilian Gov. (1/2)
Trump also skipped the working session on oceans, climate, and biodiversity. Yet his administration did sign on to the on Biodiversity, a commitment to fight loss of biodiversity and tackle climate change that responds to from scientists.
"While it is welcome news that the administration has agreed to sign on to the G-7's Metz charter on biodiversity, I am doubtful the statement carries much weight," said Whitley Saumweber, director of the Stephenson Ocean Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Saumweber said the charter "stands in glaring contrast" to the administration's climate actions and objectives, which include drilling in the Arctic, logging in Tongass National Forest, weakening the endangered species act and withdrawing from the Paris climate accord. "Those policies will accelerate habitat loss, resource overexploitation and climate change, all of which are driving biodiversity loss," he added.
The administration is also launching dozens of environmental rollback attempts that will undercut efforts by previous administrations to reduce emissions and climate change.
Tomas Carbonell of the Environmental Defense Fund calls the rollbacks a "series of deeply harmful attacks on some of our nation's most effective tools to fight climate change and protect health.”
A notable area of between the U.S. and G-7 counterparts is gender equality.
The administration signed on to the summit's , which includes an appeal to better prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence, and encourage women's participation in conflict prevention and peace building.
It also signed on to the , which calls on all countries to make their laws more gender-equal, and urges the G-7 to implement a "feminist foreign policy" by making women empowerment a priority in development assistance.
The G-7 is well positioned to turn the tide on gender equality, but only if nations match their promises with a substantial increase in dollars, said Jamille Bigio a Senior Fellow at the Women and Foreign Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The question, then, is whether the United States will take on this challenge when it assumes the G-7 presidency next year," she added.
In supporting the partnership on gender equality, the Trump administration points to its Women's Global Development andProsperity (W-GDP) Initiative, which seeks to economically empower 50 million women across the developing world by 2025. The initiative is spear-headed by the president's daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump.
While analysts applaud that Ivanka Trump is continuing a long-standing U.S. policy to support gender equality world-wide, they point out to the fact that women's economic empowerment is closely tied to reproductive rights, an area where the Trump administration has restrictive policies.
While the hope is that G-7 nations will invest in broader measures to advance the status of women and girls, Bigio said that when the U.S. takes up the G-7 presidency next year, "the expectation is that they will only focus on women's economic empowerment."
The W-GDP has "a narrow focus because we want to make sure that it has tangible results" said a senior Trump administration official. "We want to make sure that it is focused on economic growth. So it does not dive into the important health issues across the developing world," she added.
Economic empowerment is "more politically feasible for this administration than other areas critical to women's lives like healthcare or protection from violence," Bigio said.