IN HIS FIRST MAJOR OVERSEAS APPEARANCE SINCE THE MURDER OF A SAUDI JOURNALIST IN A CONSULATE IN ISTANBUL, THE SAUDI CROWN PRINCE RECEIVED AN ENTHUSIASTIC WELCOME FROM PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN.
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The officials said the U.S. was also blocking any mention of migration in the final statement. Asked about the European concerns, a U.S. official said progress was being made on the joint statement and the White House was “optimistic” about the document as a whole.
Argentine President Mauricio Macri kicked off the summit by acknowledging divisions within the G20 while urging world leaders to have a “sense of urgency” and take actions “based on shared interests.”
The summit is meant to focus on issues such as labour, infrastructure, development, financial stability, climate sustainability and international commerce.
But as the gathering got underway, those themes seemed like afterthoughts, overshadowed by contentious matters from the U.S.China trade dispute to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Putin found an unusual way to explain why Russia was justified in seizing Ukrainian naval ships and their crews near Crimea — he took out pen and paper and drew a map.
Ukraine toughened its stance on Friday, banning entry to all Russian men of fighting age in what Ukraine’s president said was an effort to prevent the Kremlin from destabilizing the country.
President Petro Poroshenko said the 30-day ban should prevent Russian servicemen disguised as civilians from sneaking into the country as they did in Ukraine’s east, where Moscow backed the separatist insurgency with troops and weapons in a conflict that has left more than 10,000 dead.
Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, spearheaded aG 7 foreign ministers’ statement that condemns Russian aggression in Ukraine and urges the release of the detained sailors. The joint communique says the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the United States, and the high representative of the European Union, calling on Russia to release the detained crew and ships and refrain from impeding lawful passage through the Kerch Strait.
Also looming large amid dozens of bilateral meetings in Buenos Aires: the gruesome slaying of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate and how the crown prince, who is alleged to have ordered the killing, is received by world leaders.
Saudi Arabia has denied that bin Salman played a role, but some leaders may be cool toward him to avoid legitimizing a man who U.S. intelligence agencies say ordered the killing. Trump’s administration has made clear it does not want to torpedo the longstanding U.S. relationship with Riyadh, however.
Leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico, meanwhile, met in the morning to sign a trade deal replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement. It must still be ratified by lawmakers in all three countries, and passage in the U.S. could face a tough road in the House of Representatives after Democrats won a majority in midterm elections.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Trump to remove tariffs on steel and aluminum, saying they remain a major economic obstacle.
While Trump cancelled his meeting with Putin, the president was still scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but analysts were not optimistic about a major breakthrough on the two countries’ trade disputes.