The Group of Seven summit in the French resort of Évian-les-Bains concluded on Wednesday with a rare display of unity behind the nascent American-Iranian memorandum of understanding, a diplomatic gambit that President Emmanuel Macron described as a chance to end the “instability” that has rattled global energy markets. Speaking at the closing press conference, Macron confirmed that all seven leaders welcomed the deal, which was brokered with the personal involvement of Donald Trump and is expected to be signed in person in Geneva on Friday. Yet the endorsement came with a sharp strategic edge: the G7 committed to actively reducing its collective reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow chokepoint through which roughly a quarter of Europe’s oil and gas supplies transit. “We are looking for an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz,” Macron declared, signalling a long-term recalibration of energy security that extends well beyond the immediate diplomatic breakthrough.

Viewed from Washington, the memorandum is a tentative first step toward a permanent accord that would verifiably prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and address its ballistic missile programme and regional proxies. The G7 statement explicitly framed the deal as an opportunity to tackle those threats, and leaders pledged to contribute to its implementation. In parallel, Paris and London are spearheading an independent multinational defence initiative to safeguard commercial shipping in the Gulf. Some twenty nations have indicated readiness to join a protection mission that would ensure free transit, reassure insurers, and verify the clearance of mines—a direct response to the maritime insecurity that has spiked since the collapse of the previous nuclear agreement. Iranian state media, meanwhile, moved swiftly to quash rumours that the delegation’s trip to Switzerland had been cancelled, insisting that the final text of the memorandum was settled on Monday morning and that the schedule remained unchanged.

The summit’s communiqué also trained its focus on the Levant, where the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon remains a priority for European capitals. Macron stressed the need to “solidify” the truce and respect Lebanese sovereignty, while the G7 statement went further, backing the Lebanese leadership’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah through an “immediate and robust” cessation of hostilities. From Beirut, the diplomatic calendar is already filling: Lebanese-Israeli negotiations are set to commence on 23 June and run for three days, a timeline that places enormous pressure on all parties to convert the current lull into a durable political settlement. The French president hailed the summit as a “moment of unity” after months of transatlantic and intra-European divergences, but the real test of that unity will come in the implementation phase, when the gap between rhetorical support and operational commitment often yawns wide.

Analysts in London caution that the memorandum remains a skeletal framework, with only a handful of details publicly known. Its success hinges on whether the parties can move swiftly from a digital signature to a binding, verifiable permanent agreement—a process that will require sustained mediation and a willingness in both Washington and Tehran to absorb domestic political blowback. The parallel push to diversify energy supply routes away from Hormuz is equally ambitious: it implies major infrastructure investments and a reimagining of global oil logistics that could take years to materialise. For now, the G7 has placed its weight behind diplomacy, but the summit’s twin emphasis on reducing chokepoint dependency suggests that even the deal’s architects are hedging against its fragility.