Earlier Thursday, an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in a briefing that Ramaphosa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had not been extended invitations to the G7 summit.<\/p>\n
Trump and Zelenskyy have had a notably tense relationship, highlighted by a disastrous encounter in the Oval Office in February 2025.\u00a0 But ties between the two appear to have improved over time, notably during a later encounter in Rome<\/a> and then at a second Oval Office meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n The French president\u2019s adviser denied Macron was tailoring invitations to keep Trump happy and said the invitation decisions came down to both priorities \u2014 Macron wants the G7 this year to tackle global imbalances and rising tensions between Washington and Beijing \u2014\u00a0and logistics.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy has attended every G7 leaders\u2019 summit in person since 2023, including last year\u2019s in Canada. Trump left that event early, dashing Zelenskyy\u2019s hope of securing a meeting with the U.S. president.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not anti-Zelenskyy, nor anti-Ukraine but we have an agenda that we are trying to push forward,\u201d the adviser told the press briefing. \u201cWe will find ways so that what\u2019s happening in Ukraine is properly addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n With respect to South Africa, the Macron adviser said that the French presidency of the G7 had instead invited Kenya as \u201ca partner country\u201d to give Paris and Nairobi the opportunity to build diplomatic undertakings the two sides will address at a joint summit in May.<\/p>\n