Buenos Aires, Argentina: Fissures on trade, climate change and Ukraine divided world leaders Friday
Buenos Aires, Argentina: Fissures on trade, climate change and Ukraine divided world leaders Friday as US President Donald Trump came under sustained fire and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler came in from the cold at G20 talks.
The leaders of countries representing four-fifths of the global economy opened a two-day meeting in Argentina facing the deepest fractures since the first G20 summit convened 10 years ago in the throes of financial crisis.
Trump was attacked for destroying the group’s past unity on trade and climate change. But he won a breakthrough with the signing of a new trade pact for North America and, having ignited a trade war with China, touted “good signs” ahead of a dinner Saturday with President Xi Jinping.
In remarks to the summit relayed by the Xinhua news agency, Xi reaffirmed his pledges of economic reform “with increased efforts in intellectual property rights protection and more imports.”
If that was designed to soothe Trump, Xi more generally urged his fellow G20 leaders “to stick to openness” and to “steer (the) world economy responsibly,” Xinhua reported.
The summit began in Buenos Aires with a traditional “family photo” by the leaders of a group whose relationships range from warm and friendly to chilly and distrustful.
Elsewhere in Buenos Aires, as Argentina goes through a painful economic crisis, tens of thousands of protesters rallied peacefully to denounce the government for spending millions on the summit while the public endures rocketing inflation and unemployment.
They paraded with signs attacking Trump and the International Monetary Fund, whose largesse is keeping Argentina afloat at the cost of hard-hitting austerity measures.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, under pressure himself after his security forces seized three Ukrainian ships, set the tone for a combative two days by condemning the “vicious” use of sanctions and trade protectionism.
