Merkel hopes for G20 win-win
HOST HOPES TO FIND COMMON GROUND ON GLOBAL FINANCE, TERRORISM, CLIMATE CHANGE
U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders of the Group of 20 top industrial and developing countries arrived Thursday in Hamburg as police in Germany’s second-biggest city braced themselves for a major protest by anti-globalization activists raising banners saying “G20: Welcome to Hell.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped the G20 leaders meeting Friday and Saturday would lead to “compromises and answers” on a wide range of issues.
Merkel said leaders would address regulating financial markets, fighting terrorism and pandemics and combating climate change, among other issues. She said “free, rule-based and fair trade” will be an important issue.
“You can imagine that there will be discussions that will not be easy,” she said. “Globalization can be a win-win situation. It must not always be that there are winners and losers.”
She held a private meeting with President Donald Trump shortly after his arrival Thursday.
The pair have had a chilly relationship during his first months in office. Appearing briefly before the media, they appeared casual with another and chatted freely. They shook hands while looking directly at each other.
Earlier in the day in Poland, in a speech that sometimes echoed the dark tones of his inaugural address, Trump laid out a stark vision of a clash of civilizations and said it’s not clear that the West can survive.
He argued that the West can prevail, but only if nations cling tight to the bedrock values of faith, family and freedom.
“As the Polish experience reminds us, the defence of the West ultimately rests not only on the means but also on the will of its people to prevail,” Trump told a cheering crowd in Warsaw’s Krasinski Square that at times chanted his name. “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.”
“Our own fight for the West does not begin on the battlefield — it begins with our minds, our wills, and our souls,” Trump said.
Trump rebuked Russia on several counts, including its military incursion into Ukraine. He is expected to meet on the sidelines of the summit Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in their first face-to-face encounter since his inauguration.
Earlier in the day, Trump refused to say definitively that he believes Russia was solely responsible for interference in the 2016 U.S. election.
“I think it could very well have been Russia, but I think it could well have been other countries. I won’t be specific,” Trump said at a news conference in Warsaw. “I think a lot of people interfere. I think it’s been happening for a long time.”
On the eve of the summit, German police clashed with violent protesters in Hamburg, using water cannons, pepper spray and batons to disperse marchers after some attacked them with bottles and other objects.
The protest was titled “G20: Welcome to Hell,” and a standoff between hardcore anti-capitalist protesters and police developed before the march really got going.
Police said they repeatedly asked some demonstrators to remove their masks, to no avail. They then decided to separate the group from the rest of the march, which they estimated at 12,000.
Black-hooded protesters attacked a police vehicle with bottles and bricks, breaking its window.
Organizers quickly called an end to the march after the violence broke out, police said. Skirmishes continued, with police advancing down the street with two water cannons while being pelted with bottles.
A nearby building was plastered with the slogan “Borderless solidarity instead of nationalism: attack the G20.” A small group on the roof set off fireworks. Police said windows at a furniture store and a bank were damaged. There was no immediate word on a number of arrests or injuries.
Many other groups are calling for peaceful protests and are pushing G20 leaders for action to fight climate change and address economic disparities. Some are even calling for the dissolution of the G20 so the United Nations becomes the platform for such discussions.