US-Euro Talks Planned For G20
US President Donald Trump plans to speak with German, French and Italian officials, he said ahead of a summit of the G20 leading economies later this week that could expose his sharp differences with world powers on trade and other issues. Mr Trump, who announced the talks on Twitter, is scheduled to attend the two-day G20 summit that starts in Hamburg on Friday and will hold separate meetings with various leaders, including host German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The gathering will take place just over a month after a G7 summit in Sicily showed deep divisions between Mr Trump and other western countries on climate change, trade and migration.
The White House said in a statement Trump’s phone calls would be with Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, but did not mention French President Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Trump and Mr Macron spoke last week when the US President accepted an invitation to attend Bastille Day ceremonies in Paris on July 14. Representatives for the White House did not immediately reply for a request for comment. Representatives for Mr Macron’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.
In remarks last week, Mrs Merkel raised the prospect of an open clash with Mr Trump at the Hamburg summit, although some Trump administration officials have played down the discord. At the G20 meeting, Mr Trump is also expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters the Trump-Putin meeting would happen on the sidelines of the G20 summit but it was not yet finalised how it would fit into the summit’s schedule.
“We will be looking for certain breaks, windows to hold this, the most important, meeting,” Ushakov said.
Mr Trump is scheduled to attend the two-day G20 summit that starts in Hamburg on Friday and will hold separate meeting with various leaders, including host German Chancellor Angela Merkel.