France deploying 13K officers, drones to lock down G-7 summit site

France is deploying 13,200 officers and drones to lock down the site of the Group of Seven (G-7) summit this weekend, Reuters reports.

The seaside resort of Biarritz will be surrounded by officials amid expected protests of the meeting of leaders from France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan and Italy. 

{mosads}“We will not tolerate any serious trouble,” French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said at a news conference Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Campaign groups and demonstrators will reportedly be able to congregate a little under 20 miles away in the towns of Hendaye and Irun.

No protest groups have announced plans to target Biarritz, but Castaner stressed that forces were taking no chances.

“It is not because we have any particular intelligence but because there is a culture [of trouble] at these events and we remember the past,” Castaner said.

President Trump, who is set to attend the summit later this week, spoke by phone with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to discuss the summit.

Trump left the G-7 summit early last year, a move that came amid a public feud with several leaders attending the 2018 event in Canada.

Trump on Tuesday also revived his idea of reinstating Russia in the group of major world economies, arguing such a move would be appropriate.

Russia was removed from the group, then known as the G-8, over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.