By John Irish, Jarrett Renshaw and Andreas Rinke KANANASKIS, Alberta (Reuters) -Group of Seven leaders faced early challenges during meetings in Canada on Monday as U.S. President Donald Trump said removing Russia from the former Group of Eight over a decade ago had been a mistake.

U.S. President Donald Trump will attend the G7 conference in Canada during a period of heightened tensions between the U.S. and its allies, as well as between Iran and Israel.

Donald Trump said it was a “big mistake” to exclude Russia from G7 summits as he used his opening remarks of the meeting in Canada’s Rocky Mountains to lament the group’s treatment of Moscow.

US President Donald Trump is in Kananaskis, Alberta in western Canada for the G7 summit where he will shortly meet with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Trump's one-on-one meeting with Carney comes amid tensions between Washington and Ottawa over trade and security

U.S. President Donald Trump is suggesting that Russia and maybe even China should be part of what is now called the Group of Seven.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to assert his presence as host of this year’s Group of Seven leaders‘ summit. Carney’s first G7 challenge was his bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday morning,

Trump railed against former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after that Group of Seven summit and threatened to yank the United States from a joint statement. The leaders fought over tariffs on steel and aluminum.

The issue of U.S. President Donald Trump's trade tariffs remains a source of deep tension between allies and the U.S. Trump hasn't attended a G7 summit since 2019, after upsetting the group the year before by withdrawing U.

The 2018 summit ended with Trump assailing his Canadian hosts on social media as he departed on Air Force One, saying he had instructed the U.S. officials who remained in Quebec to oppose the G7 joint statement endorsed by the leaders of Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and, of course, Canada.

Zelenskiy, who is visiting Austria, would attend the Group of Seven summit in Canada on Tuesday, where he hopes to meet Trump on the sidelines of the meeting. "One of the questions that I will discuss with President Trump during the meeting is the defence package that Ukraine is ready to buy," Zelenskiy told a news conference in Vienna.