Marco Rubio left Paris on Tuesday with warm words for Ukraine from his allies and a cold shoulder on the request he cared about most. At the close of a two-day meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers, the US Secretary of State admitted that his call for partners to help guard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz had gone nowhere. “I raised it. I didn’t get a response,” he conceded at a news conference.
Washington says vessels in the waterway still face drone attacks, and Rubio argued that the rest of the world has a bigger stake in the oil route than the United States does. Paris and several other capitals want a halt to hostilities before committing mine-clearing ships. Rubio called that “kind of a Catch-22” but said a couple of countries were considering joining. He also told his counterparts that sanctions and the US naval blockade were already battering Iran’s economy, so a return to major combat operations was not needed for now.
On Ukraine, the picture was more harmonious. According to Toshimitsu Motegi, who speaks for Tokyo, the group agreed to keep helping Kyiv repair power plants and grids damaged by Russian missiles before winter sets in, and that the ministers want the guns to fall silent completely. Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, attended a dedicated session at the invitation of host Jean-Noël Barrot of France, which chairs the G7 this year. Kyiv’s wish list starts with air defence, amid worries about a shortage of Patriot interceptors next year.
The timing gave the meeting extra weight: as the ministers talked, Russian, Ukrainian and American negotiators were holding their first three-way session since February in Abu Dhabi.
Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Brazil and South Korea joined parts of the agenda, which also covered free passage through Bab el-Mandeb, Gaza, AI safety and undersea cables. Asked whether the midterm defeat for President Donald Trump’s party would shift US policy, Rubio said the president remains the deciding factor. A 12-page joint statement was adopted but had not been published by late Tuesday.
