Merkel to G20: We need compromises
hamburg — German Chancellor Angela Merkel told leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers on Friday that millions of people are hoping they can help solve the world’s problems, and warned them that they must be prepared to make compromises.
As the leaders discussed terrorism, trade and climate change, protests against their gathering continued in various parts of Hamburg. Anti-globalisation activists set dozens of cars ablaze and protesters tried unsuccessfully to block leaders’ delegations from getting to the downtown convention center where the summit is being held.
Police ordered in several hundred more officers from across the country on Friday.
Inside the security cordon, Merkel’s prospects of finding common ground issues such as climate change and multilateral trade looked uncertain at President Donald Trump’s first G20 summit. Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and decision to withdraw from the Paris accord against climate change have caused widespread concern in Europe and beyond.
“There are of course millions of people following us with their concerns, their fears and their needs, who hope that we can make a contribution to solving the problems,” Merkel told fellow leaders at the start of a working lunch at which they were to discuss global growth and trade.
“I am absolutely sure that everyone will make an effort to achieve good results,” she added. “We all know the big global challenges, and we know that time is pressing,” Merkel said. “So solutions can only be found if we are prepared to compromise... without, and I say this clearly, bending ourselves too much out of shape. We can of course also name differences.”
Merkel noted that the countries at the summit represent two-thirds
Solutions can only be found if we are prepared to compromise... without, and I say this clearly, bending ourselves too much out of shape Angela Merkel, German Chancellor
of the world population, four-fifths of the globe’s gross domestic product and three-quarters of world trade. Before the summit, the leaders of China, India, Russia, Brazil and South Africa met and called for a more open global economy.
In a statement following their meeting, the so-called Brics nations voiced support for a “rulesbased, transparent, non-discriminatory, open and inclusive multilateral trading system” and emphasised the need for increasing “the voice and representation” of emerging markets and developing countries in global economic and financial institutions.
Speaking at the meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke against global trade restrictions, saying that financial sanctions on a political pretext hurt mutual confidence and damage the global economy — an apparent reference to Western sanctions against Russia.
The Brics leaders also urged the international community to work jointly to implement the Paris climate agreement. The summit follows skirmishes on Thursday evening between police and protesters at a demonstration in Germany’s second-biggest city. —