World leaders head into stormy G20 conference

Berlin, Wednesday

US President Donald Trump meets other world leaders at Germany’s G20 summit from Friday, with conflicts looming over climate, trade and other global issues both inside and outside the heavily fortified venue.

Fears over nuclear-armed North Korea, which just successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), cast another long shadow over the gathering, which will bring the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea to the northern city of Hamburg.

Deeply divided Some 20,000 police will guard the heads of the Group of 20 big industrialised and emerging economies against anti-capitalist protesters are greeting them with the combative slogan “G20—Welcome to Hell”.

But trouble is also brewing at the conference table at a time when the West and Europe are deeply divided, the post-Cold War order is fraying and China and Russia are asserting themselves on the global stage.

All eyes will be on Trump, who had vowed North Korea’s goal of developing a nuclear weapon that can reach the US “won’t happen” and has repeatedly pressed China to rein in its truculent neighbour.

His counterparts are bracing for fresh surprises after Trump stunned the world by pulling out of the 2015 Paris climate pact, questioned long-standing Nato allegiances and dismissed free-trade principles.

“There is a danger that the summit will lead to polarisation between the US and other countries” on climate change and other issues, warned Oxford Analytics economist Adam Slater.

Trade wars loom as Trump has demanded Germany and China reduce their huge surpluses and his administration has threatened other countries with punitive measures in battles over cars, steel and natural gas. -AFP

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