DAVID GREENE, HOST:
President Trump is speaking this hour at the G7 summit in France. Standing next to French president Emmanuel Macron, Trump said all seven countries in the global block remain in lockstep.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: There was tremendous unity. There was great unity. Sometimes I'd read a little bit of false reporting. And I will tell you there was - in fact, we were - we would have stayed for another hour. Nobody wanted to leave. We were accomplishing a lot. But I think more importantly, we were getting along very well - seven countries.
GREENE: Again, the voice of President Trump there, who is speaking at this very moment with President Macron at the G7 in France. I have NPR White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe in the studio with me here in Washington. Hi, Ayesha.
AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE: Hello.
GREENE: So the president right there, early in his remarks, said this summit over the weekend was all about unity. But there was a moment also when President Macron suggested that instability when it comes to economics and trade is bad for the global economy. Was that sort of a dig at President Trump and the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and China?
RASCOE: Well, it's an acknowledgment that even though President Trump is saying everything's all good, everything's great, that there are some real challenges there and that all of these countries do not agree. I mean, China's not in the G7, but all of these countries in the G7 are affected by the U.S. and China having this big disagreement.
And President Trump, this is what he typically does after any international summit, even ones where he's known to kind of be stirring the pot a bit. He always says everyone - it was great. Everyone got along great. But the proof is in the fact that they just don't - they're not going to have an extensive agreement; they're going to have this one-page agreement, which is not the usual for these types summits.
GREENE: The big communicators.
RASCOE: The big...
GREENE: You're saying that all the leaders involved...
RASCOE: Yes.
GREENE: OK, we're not seeing that.
RASCOE: And so you're not going to have that; you're going to have one page. And so that shows, like, how tough this was getting everybody on that one page.
GREENE: Let me ask you about one of the other issues we're following. Macron invited Iran's foreign minister to the summit, which President Trump - saying he wasn't surprised; we were all sort of surprised, at a moment when the U.S. is really taking a confrontational approach to Iran. Did they reach some sort of agreement? What is coming out of the summit?
RASCOE: It's not really clear. Macron is saying that he wants Iran's President Hassan Rouhani to meet with President Trump and that Macron is going to be working on this along with the Japanese prime minister, that they're going to be working to try to make this happen. But it is unclear whether that is - that would be a huge deal. And so whether the U.S. will end up agreeing to that is - remains to be seen.
GREENE: OK. NPR White House reporter Ayesha Rascoe updating us on the G7. Ayesha, thanks a lot.
RASCOE: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
