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From left, European Council President Charles Michel, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pose for the family photo at the Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima, western Japan, Friday, May 19, 2023.

From left, European Council President Charles Michel, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pose for the family photo at the Itsukushima Shrine in Hiroshima, western Japan, Friday, May 19, 2023. (Stefan Rousseau/Pool)

Group of Seven leaders found a brief patch of sunshine for their traditional family photo on Friday at a summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, but the mood at the meeting is somber as Russia's invasion of Ukraine nears its sixteenth month.

The conflict in Ukraine has resurrected fears about the buildup of nuclear arsenals, riven by Russian President Vladimir Putin's periodic threats to use them in his invasion. That is all the more poignant for G-7 leaders given the site of their meeting is the city on which the U.S. dropped a nuclear bomb in the dying days of World War II.

After talks on ways to further support Ukraine and punish Russia, the leaders traveled to the Itsukushima Shrine, on an island in an inland sea near Hiroshima, for a walk around the site and to take their family photo. A broad, vermilion-hued structure that stretches out over the water, the shrine rang with the sound of Japanese traditional musicians as the leaders gathered near the water's edge.

It had rained most of the day, but as they posed the sun had come out and was slowly setting over the water behind them.

President Joe Biden missed some of the tour, arriving for the final moments with the shrine's chief priest. The U.S. leader has been a low-key presence at the summit so far, spending time also on the phone with his advisers back home as he seeks to avert a crisis over the U.S. debt ceiling.

Earlier Friday the leaders gathered in a rainy Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima to lay identical white wreaths and plant a tree, remembering the victims of the bombing of 1945.

Photos from G-7 meetings can provide a glimpse into the relationships between leaders. Some embrace effusively, others stay more at arms length. Sometimes two leaders get absorbed in discussion, almost forgetting the others are there. Each summit reflects the geopolitical dynamics at the time. But there is one thing the photos from these summits have in common - not a lot of women.

Here's a look at some other G-7 family photos in recent years:

Michel, then-Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Trudeau, Macron, Scholz, Biden, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Kishida and von der Leyen at the family photo for the G-7 in Germany in June 2022.

Michel, then-Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Trudeau, Macron, Scholz, Biden, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Kishida and von der Leyen at the family photo for the G-7 in Germany in June 2022. (Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz/Bloomberg )

The German Alps

The G-7 summit in 2022 was held very much in the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine just months earlier. Putin's war dominated the discussions including penalties on Russia and aid for the government in Kyiv. While it was unusually warm and sunny, the mood was sober and the leaders united in their condemnation of Putin for his actions.

The British Seaside

The summit the previous year in the British region of Cornwall was by contrast a more jovial affair. The Covid-19 pandemic was still raging but it was the first time some of the leaders had met in person in a while, and they clearly enjoyed catching up.

Trudeau, Michel, Biden, then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Johnson, Draghi, Macron, von der Leyen and then-Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel at the family photo for the G-7 summit in the UK in June 2021.

Trudeau, Michel, Biden, then-Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Johnson, Draghi, Macron, von der Leyen and then-Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel at the family photo for the G-7 summit in the UK in June 2021. (Hollie Adams/Bloomberg )

The meeting risked being overtaken at one point by an odd Brexit-related dispute between the U.K. and France over ... sausages. But behind the scenes some business was being done: A long time later it emerged the U.S., U.K. and Australia had struck a deal on the Cornish beaches to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

The Canadian Mountains

Compared with the Cornish sunshine, the 2018 summit in Canada was a testy one, even as the leaders attempted a collective show of cooperation in their family photo.

In reality, tensions were high as leaders sparred with then-U.S. President Donald Trump on trade policy. They huddled late into the night to hash out a statement they could all agree to, producing some iconic images in the process.

Then-European Council President Donald Tusk, then-UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Merkel, then-US President Donald Trump, Trudeau, Macron, then-Japanese President Shinzo Abe, then-Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the family photo for the G-7 summit in Canada in June 2018.

Then-European Council President Donald Tusk, then-UK Prime Minister Theresa May, Merkel, then-US President Donald Trump, Trudeau, Macron, then-Japanese President Shinzo Abe, then-Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and then-European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the family photo for the G-7 summit in Canada in June 2018. (Cole Burston/Bloomberg )

But then Trump ripped up the communiqué on his way out: He told U.S. officials not to endorse the statement and accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being dishonest on trade issues, unleashing Twitter posts saying the U.S. would look at tariffs on automobiles he said were "flooding the U.S. market."

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