A simple wooden bench is probably the most famous sight in the vicinity of Elmau Castle in Bavaria. A legendary photo of ex-Chancellor Merkel and then US President Obama was taken on this bench seven years ago. The participants of this year's G7 summit don't miss the opportunity to have their picture taken at the historic site.
That should be the image that sticks in people's minds from the G7 summit in Elmau, Bavaria: the heads of state and government of leading democratic economic powers gathered on Sunday evening at the legendary wooden bench on which an iconic image of the former chancellor was painted in front of Schloss Elmau in 2015 Angela Merkel was formed with the then US President Barack Obama. Seven years ago, Obama sat in the middle of the bench and spread his arms very casually on the backrest, while Merkel also stood in front of him with her arms outstretched.
This time, the seven heads of state and government as well as EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel stood in a row behind the bench with the Alpine panorama in the background. Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put his arms almost amicably over the shoulders of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Johnson, in turn, put his arm like a buddy around Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is hosting the three-day summit. French President Emmanuel Macron did without his jacket.
The photo was taken after a dinner that was supposed to be about security policy - especially the Ukraine war. The nine summit participants made it to the bank just in time before sunset, when the last rays of sun were still falling on the Wetterstein mountains.
The summit meeting of the heads of state and government of the most important nations in the western world takes place from Sunday to Tuesday, for the second time at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps not far from Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The Federal Government currently chairs the group. The Ukraine war and its economic consequences with rapidly increasing energy prices are a central topic of the meeting. On Monday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also take part in a working session via video link. Other focal points are climate policy and global food security.
