Buenos Aires: US President Donald Trump headed to Argentina Thursday for a fractious weekend of G20
Buenos Aires: US President Donald Trump headed to Argentina Thursday for a fractious weekend of G20 summitry, cancelling planned talks with Russia’s leader and boasting that his trade war with China was paying off.
Rumblings of resistance to Trump’s isolationist agenda were apparent as French President Emmanuel Macron said he would convene his fellow European leaders in Buenos Aires to forge a united front on “all the challenges” faced at the G20.
Trump called off Saturday’s bilateral with President Vladimir Putin at the G20, minutes after saying it would “probably” still happen despite Russia’s seizure of three Ukrainian ships.
“I look forward to a meaningful Summit again as soon as this situation is resolved!” Trump tweeted, calling on Russia to return the ships and their detained crews.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko retweeted Trump’s change of mind and added his own comment in English: “This is how great leaders act!”
The cancellation coincided with a new eruption in the controversy over Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election — an issue that also flared up when the pair held their only summit to date, in Finland in July.
Trump again ridiculed the investigation into the allegations and accused his former lawyer Michael Cohen of lying, after Cohen pled guilty to misleading Congress.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reacted frostily to Trump’s cancellation, saying it would free up Putin to hold other “useful meetings” at the G20.
Ukraine’s government hoped to embarrass Putin at the G20 by erecting a giant billboard outside the meeting, depicting a bleeding Kerch strait off Crimea where Russia captured the ships.
