G7 allies to assess impact of Trump's midterm setback at Paris talks

By John Irish and Simon Lewis

PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - G7 foreign ministers gathered in Paris on Monday aiming to gauge whether a US midterm defeat for President Donald Trump alters the administration's approach to Ukraine, the Middle East and ties with its closest allies, four G7 diplomats said.

The diplomats signalled the Democrats' gains could narrow the White House's room for manoeuvre, but warned against expecting a return to traditional US multilateralism while foreign policy remains very much under Trump's control.

The meeting, moved at short notice from Marseille to Paris for security reasons after weeks of protests across France, will see US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, make his first appearance before allies since the elections.

Iran is expected to feature prominently in discussions. Washington's G7 allies have repeatedly voiced scepticism over the war and fear further US military action could worsen rather than resolve the crisis.

Speaking on his way to the French capital, Rubio downplayed the chances of a deal with Iran, one of the issues that saw voters turn against Trump.

"I wouldn't say we're on the verge of a breakthrough," he said, adding sometimes leaders had to press on with unpopular policies because it was the right thing to do.

In a sideline meeting with FrenchForeign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, Rubio appeared to stickto the Trump administration's tough-talking approach toward US allies in Europe, calling for an end to EU trade preferences and what the US calls "overregulation" of American companies, according to a US State Departmentreadout of the meeting.

Rubio also pressed Barrot on US concerns about the International Criminal Court, it said. Rubio, citing the court's unwillingness to guarantee it won't prosecute US officials, has announced sanctions aimed at crippling the court's ability to operate that comeinto effect in April.

UKRAINE IN FOCUS AHEAD OF ABU DHABI TALKS

The G7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as the European Union. Ministers from Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Korea and Brazil are also attending.

Ukraine is also likely to top the agenda, with the ministerial meeting coming ahead of trilateral discussions on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi between Ukraine, Russia and the United States. Officials from France, Britain, Germany, NATO and the European Commission will also be in the Emirati capital, Barrot said on Sunday.

In a sign of friction among Europeans, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned on November 5 that Europe risked becoming irrelevant in efforts to end the war in Ukraine if member states continued pursuing separate diplomatic tracks, rather than agreeing on a common representative and strategy.

The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, told Reuters in Paris she saw little sign of Russian goodwill to negotiate an end to the war, saying Moscow has been "pretending to negotiate."

Diplomats painted a sombre picture of the situation in Ukraine. While the front had largely stabilised, making major breakthroughs unlikely, they warned that Russia had shifted tactics toward systematically targeting energy infrastructure in an effort to trigger a nationwide winter blackout.

Shortages of Patriot interceptor missiles and other air-defence systems were Kyiv's most urgent military vulnerability and they said one objective of the G7 meeting would be to sustain pressure on Russia while mobilising additional military, financial and energy support for Ukraine.

After his personal data had been published on the ​dark web by what he said were ​pro-Russian hackers, Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said talks would also focus on hybrid threats.

There has been a spate of incidents across Europe, including flight hoaxes, cyberattacks on supermarkets and efforts to exploit protests in France.

(Reporting by John Irish and Simon Lewis; Editing by Chris Reese, Alex Richardson and Ros Russell)