Dominic Waghorn, International Affairs Editor
The views are stunning as G7 leaders meet near the beautiful Italian city of Bari.
The Adriatic Sea backdrop is calm and serene.
Don’t be fooled.
The prospects for a Western alliance are simply not like that.
The allies reunited in a storm-battered and weakened state back home, with a sense of impending doom hanging over them.
The fact that Italy, normally a politically unstable country, is currently the least dysfunctional G7 member state says it all.
Italy’s leader, Georgia Meloni, the host of the summit, boasted that her country’s government was the strongest in Europe, “going against the tide of the times.”
Who could argue with that?
Not Emmanuel Macron, who, fresh from his electoral victory a few days ago and the subsequent hastily concluded parliamentary vote, is struggling to save France from the clutches of the populists.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is similarly humble.
And certainly not Rishi Sunak, who is weathering one excruciating challenge after another in the British election campaign.
Outside of Europe, Meloni’s other guests arrive with similar domestic problems.
Disappointment with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is growing, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s approval rating has never been worse.
And Joe Biden lives in a world of pain, both personal and political.
Allies and voters at home are increasingly doubtful that Trump can hang on to another four years in power, let alone survive an election.
With war raging in and around Europe, there could never be a worse time for such weakness and division.
This year’s G7 venue, near the walled city of Bari, is meant to teach guests about the region’s long history of conflict between the Byzantine, Saracen, Norman and Angevin empires.
The leaders meet with the enemy at the gate.
Populist forces threaten to topple bastions of liberal democracy across Europe.
Russia is on the offensive in Ukraine, and the conflict is galvanizing an alliance of authoritarian states in the East.
Host Georgia Meloni will likely try to co-ordinate a unified response.
Italy, for example, has been at the forefront of efforts to use billions of dollars seized from Russia to fund the war in Ukraine.
But on the eve of the summit, diplomacy appeared to be unraveling, with Europeans reportedly accusing the US of not playing its part in the effort.
Our allies know only too well the costs of hesitation and delay.
Russia’s failure to get tanks to Ukraine before it could prepare its defenses proved costly on the battlefield.
Hopes for diplomatic progress in Bari are being managed.
Excuses galore. Democracy is in disarray.
It is harder for an enemy to lead multiple democracies than it is to run a totalitarian state.
But the reality is, there is no time for division: this may be the West’s last golden opportunity.
A year from now we may have a President Trump who is instinctively opposed to all the G7 ideals.
He could spend six months dismantling NATO.
France could be paralyzed and its president a lame duck, as could Germany.
The enemies of freedom and democracy are doing everything in their power to hasten the demise of the West.
In Moscow, Tehran and Beijing, people are watching this latest rally with glee, not alarm.
Unless their allies can prove them wrong.
Don’t hold your breath.