The meeting of the nineteen most industrialized nations in the world plus the European Union, the G20 summit is set to officially begin in Hamburg, with world leaders divided over major issues on the agenda – including climate change, global trade and migration.
The two-day Group of 20 summit of the world’s major economic powers is taking place in the northern German port city of Hamburg.
An estimated 100,000 protesters are taking part in demonstrations against the G20, some of which have turned violent.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes U.S. President Donald Trump at the G20 leaders summit in Hamburg, Germany July 7, 2017. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hosting the summit and is seeking to promote an open international trade system, amid fears US President Donald Trump will push a protectionist agenda under his “America First” pledge.
In a bid to pressure US President Donald Trump to change his stand on the Paris Climate Pact, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS countries), called on the G20 to push for implementation of the Paris climate deal despite Trump’s decision last month to pull the United States out of it. “The Paris agreement on climate change is an important consensus that doesn’t come easily and must not be given up easily,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Earlier British Prime Minister Theresa May said G20 leaders would urge Trump to reconsider his decision on Paris. “We are not renegotiating the Paris agreement, that stays, but I want to see the U.S. looking for ways to rejoin it,” she told the BBC
