G20 summit: Macron and Saudi crown prince in extraordinary exchange over Khashoggi murder and Yemen
Two-day summit intended to focus on development, infrastructure and food security
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Your support makes all the difference.The G20 Summit in Argentina kicked off with world leaders huddling on the sidelines to discuss their response to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was seen discussing the death with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who appeared to be ignored during the group’s official “family photo” portrait session.
Meanwhile, confusion remains over whether Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin will meet during the summit.
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The president kicked off Friday morning with a series of angry tweets after the White House reaffirmed he had cancelled an expected discussion with Mr Putin, despite the Kremlin claiming otherwise.
“Oh, I get it! I am a very good developer, happily living my life, when I see our Country going in the wrong direction (to put it mildly). Against all odds, I decide to run for President & continue to run my business-very legal & very cool, talked about it on the campaign trail...,” he tweeted.
“....Lightly looked at doing a building somewhere in Russia. Put up zero money, zero guarantees and didn’t do the project. Witch Hunt!”
Reports suggest Mr Trump is in a “terrible mood” and “completely distracted” as he headed to the event.
The president responded to news of Mr Cohen’s plea deal by saying he was a “weak person and not a very smart person.”
Mr Trump will be having a number of meetings at the summit in Buenos Aires starting the day at 6.50am local time and finishing 10.10pm. He said on Thursday he had cancelled a meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, due to the country’s conflict with Ukraine.
The president has downgraded a number of his bilateral meetings as he feels “there’s nothing in them for him”, according to CNN.
Issues such as the trade war between the US and China and the conflict over Ukraine are likely to dominate the agenda.
Ahead of the summit Mr Trump said current tariff levels on Chinese imports would rise as planned.
The summit is being held in South America for the first time and Michael Shifter, head of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank, said G20 summits wer once considered an opportunity for Latin American members Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to shape the global agenda.
“That turned out to be a fleeting aspiration,” Mr Shifter said.
“...Argentine president Mauricio Macri, the summit’s host, has lowered expectations. ... Now a success would be a summit meeting that goes smoothly, without any major disruption.”
Donald Trump has met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Argentina, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported Friday.
The network did not reveal further information on what was discussed, only stating that the two world leaders “had a friendly meeting”.
Donald Trump has spoken out against Russia’s attack on three Ukrainian ships at the G20 Summit, saying “We don’t like what happened” during a photo session when asked about the issue by reporters.
“We’re not happy about it,” he continued. “Nobody is.”
The president added that it was the sole reason he had called off an expected conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the event, but was hoping for a resolution. “I look forward to meeting with President Putin,” he said Friday.
Donald Trump has pushed back against Saudi Arabia’s description of a “friendly meeting” he had with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, saying the two exchanged pleasantries but “had no discussion.”
It remains unclear what the two may have discussed, or whether there will be a readout from the talks Mr Trump has had on the sidelines of the G20.
Here are more photographs from the G20 Summit in Argentina showing Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who appear to have a friendly relationship.
↵Donald Trump celebrated the revised North American trade agreement known as USMCA during the G20 Summit in Argentina, where he and the leaders of Canada and Mexico signed the pact on Friday morning.
"This has been a battle and battles sometimes make great friendships so it’s really terrific,” he said. “With our signatures today we will formally declare the intention of our three countries to replace NAFTA with the USMCA.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been documenting the G20 Summit from behind the scenes, posting video to Twitter of the world leaders exiting the stage area where they took the official "family photo" portrait:
Anti-capitalist protestors have reportedly made their way to the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires, where officials and security teams have responded with heavy crowd control.
Also amid the protest demonstrations was the inflatable “Baby Trump,” depicting the US president as an orange child.
Donald Trump described the relationship between the US, Japan and India as “extremely, extremely good” and “extremely strong” during bilateral discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires:
Here’s more on Donald Trump’s remarks ahead of bilateral discussions between the United States, India and Japan:
“I just want to say that we have many things that we'll be talking about, in particular protection, military-type. Also trade -- we're doing a lot of business with Japan and trade. The deficit is coming down. It's a massive deficit between the -- between Japan and the United States, and it's coming down,” the president said Friday. “Japan is buying large amounts of our fighter jets, our F-35s and others, and we appreciate it very much. But they are really working with me on trying to balance our deficit, because we do have a deficit that is pretty substantial with Japan. We hope that we're going to be balancing it very quickly.”
He added, “I think probably there’s no time in our history where we’re closer.”
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