G20: Trump faces many challenges
TOUGH OUTING Tensions loom as US president braces to meet leaders from China, Russia and Saudi
US President Donald Trump will hold a make-or-break trade meeting with his Chinese counterpart at the G20 summit this week and also navigate a diplomatic minefield with Russia’s president after unrest in Ukraine, the White House said on Tuesday.
Trump is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Buenos Aires for a working dinner at the Group of 20 summit that runs on Friday and Saturday.
Economic advisor Larry Kudlow told a White House press conference that “the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it.” But Kudlow warned that if China holds out against US demands, Washington could ramp up the trade war.
“If need be, if things don’t work out in this US-China summit meeting, he will invoke another $267 some odd billion dollars in tariffs.”
The issue is the biggest looming over Trump’s visit to Argentina, with the two economic giants locked in exchanges of punitive tariffs and Washington effectively threatening to target all remaining Chinese imports, including Apple products made in China.
Despite Kudlow’s repeated insistence that Trump sees cause for optimism, he also underlined the tough conditions that the administration wants to impose on Beijing.
“China should change its practices and come into the community of responsible trading nations,” Kudlow said, stressing that he considers the US economy in far better shape than China’s to weather a prolonged trade war.
“We are in a position to deal with it and handle it very well,” he said.
China will have to give way on “fairness and reciprocity,” he said, warning that US concerns over intellectual property theft and China’s forced technology transfers “must be solved.”
Trump is also to meet separately with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the leaders of Argentina, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Turkey, White House officials said. His talks with Putin present an especially tricky task -- and may be cancelled at the last minute over Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the latest episode of a long-simmering military confrontation.
US-Russia relations are under huge strain, while Trump is under investigation at home for alleged collusion with Moscow during his 2016 presidential election win.
Trump’s last summit with Putin, in Helsinki in July 2018, prompted an outpouring of criticism that the US president had failed to hold his Russian counterpart to account over what US intelligence services have concluded was deliberate Kremlin meddling in the 2016 elections.
There are no plans, the White House said, for Trump to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.
The CIA reportedly has told Trump that Prince Mohammed, who has close ties to the administration, was behind the brutal murder of dissident journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. But Trump has dismissed this, prompting an outcry from opponents and even some allies in Congress.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders indicated that an informal meeting may yet happen. “I wouldn’t say we’ve ruled out any interaction,” she said, although she stressed that “the president’s schedule is pretty packed.”
The prince arrived in Buenos Aires on Wednesday as he aims to shrug off the lingering stigma of Khashoggi’s murder.
Officials said the prince could meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit. That would be the first meeting of the two since Khashoggi’s brutal killing at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Russia said President Vladimir Putin will discuss Khashoggi with the Saudi prince at the G20 summit. “Of course, they will talk about this subject,” Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy advisor, said.
But he added the “main aim” of the meeting will be “the development” of Russian-Saudi relations.
Ahead of his summit with Trump, President Xi told Spanish lawmakers on Wednesday that China would “make efforts to further open its door to the outside world.”
“We will make a lot of efforts to speed up market access, improve the investment environment and increase protection of intellectual property,” Xi told the Senate during a state visit to Spain.