Canada rallies against Russian aggression as new US tone splits G7 [Video]

Host Canada called Thursday on the Group of Seven powers to back Ukraine against Russia’s “aggression” as a more conciliatory approach toward Moscow by Donald Trump’s United States split the club of wealthy democracies.

Canada, the current G7 president, is gathering its foreign ministers for three days of talks inside a rustic hotel in snow-dusted Charlevoix, on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec.

Once broadly unified, the G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — has been rattled since the return of Trump, who has reached out to Russia and slapped punishing trade tariffs on close allies and competitors alike.

Before the full talks, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly met separately with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the highest-level US official to visit since the return of Trump, who has taunted the United States’ northern neighbor as the “51st state.”

Rubio and …