Trump heads to G20 minefield
Donald Trump jets to Argentina yesterday for a weekend of G20 summitry riven by new tensions over Ukraine on top of fissures carved open by the US president on trade and climate change and war in Yemen and Khashoggi killing.
Following Russia's seizure of three Ukrainian ships, Trump threatened to cancel planned talks in Buenos Aires with President Vladimir Putin. But the Kremlin said the meeting was on for Saturday.
"We don't have to agree on all the issues and indeed that may be impossible but we need to talk. That's in the interests not only of our two countries, it's in the interests of the whole world," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow.
After igniting a trade war with China and threatening tougher tariffs to come in January, Trump is also slated to sit down with President Xi Jinping on the G20 margins to press for wholesale reform of the world's second-biggest economy in favor of access for US companies.
En route to Argentina, Xi vowed on Wednesday that China would "make a lot of efforts to speed up market access, improve the investment environment and increase protection of intellectual property."
But foreign firms in China complain that such promises are all too routine, and analysts doubt that Trump and Xi's talks over a working dinner will serve up much beyond a commitment to negotiate further.
In an interview with Argentine daily La Nacion, French President Emmanuel Macron warned against the risk of "a destructive trade war for all" emanating from the G20 discussions.
G20 leaders, whose countries account for four-fifths of the world's economic output, first met in November 2008 to forge a united front against the global financial crisis.
A decade on, that unity has vanished as the "America First" Trump shreds the consensus underpinning international trade and other G20 countries such as Brazil, Italy and Mexico turn to populist leaders.
G20 sources said agreement about the communique in Buenos Aires was hitting trouble on climate change.
There are no plans, the White House says, for Trump to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.
The CIA reportedly has told Trump that Prince Mohammed, who has close ties to the administration, was behind the brutal murder of dissident journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. But Trump has dismissed this, prompting an outcry from opponents and even some allies in Congress.