With all the news coverage on the 2017 G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany last weekend, here are some things you should know.
What is it?
The Group of Twenty (G20), is an international forum that brings together 19 of the world's wealthiest nations and the European Union. In all, the group accounts for about 85 percent of the world gross domestic product (GDP), over 75 percent of world trade, and roughly two-thirds of the world's population.
The members of the G20 are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
Germany is currently serving as president of the G20.
In addition to the member nations, each year, the G20 president also invites several guest countries to participate in G20 events and contribute to the agenda, ensuring that the G20 reflects a broad range of international opinion.
Invited guests to this year's summit include Spain (a permanent guest at G20 summits), Norway, the Netherlands, and Singapore. The African Union (represented by Guinea), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (represented by Vietnam), and the New Partnership for Africa's development (represented by Senegal) were also invited.
Several organizations are also present at this weekend's event, including the International Labor Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Stability Board, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization.
Who was there?
On Friday morning, representatives of the G20 nations and invited guests posed for a G20 Summit 2017 class photo in Hamburg, Germany, where the event is being held. Meet the participants of this year's summit below:
1. Emmanuel Macron, President of France
2. Donald Trump, President of the United States
3. Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia
4. Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico
5. Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa
6. Mauricio Macri, President of Argentina
7. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
8. Xi Jinping, President of China
9. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
10. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey
11. Michel Temer, President of Brazil
12. Moon Jae-in, President of South Korea
13. Alpha Condé, President of Guinea
14. Paolo Gentiloni, Prime Minister of Italy
15. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
16. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
17. Shinzō Abe, Prime Minister of Japan
18. Malcolm Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia
19. Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
20. Donald Tusk, President of the European Council
21. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission
22. Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
23. Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
24. Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General of the World Trade Organization
25. Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway
26. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization
27. Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
28. Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund chief
29. Macky Sall, President of Senegal
30. Guy Ryder, Director-General of the International Labour Organization
31. Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore
32. Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank
33. Mariano Rajoy Brey, Prime Minister of Spain
34. Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, Prime Minister of Vietnam
35. Mark Carney, Chairman of the G20's Financial Stability Board
36. Ibrahim Al-Assaf, State Minister of Saudi Arabia
What was on the agenda?
Going into this year's summit, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, has stressed the theme of a "networked world." The German government has laid out a broad agenda on the G20 website.
1. Financial Regulation
Topping the list is financial regulation. Germany wants to work on strengthening the resilience of the global financial system and improving supervision of financial market participants, including the shadow banking system (unregulated activities by regulated institutions). Germany will also push to tackle harmful tax competition (the widespread use by companies and individuals of low-tax countries as tax shelters) between countries.
2. Global Economic Growth
This year's G20 will also focus on global economic growth. This has been a permanent G20 agenda since growth and employment are dependent on free global trade. The concern of the spread of digital technology affecting economic growth will also receive special attention under the German Presidency, with a digital affairs ministers conference being organized by the G20 for the first time.
To reaffirm a global commitment to free trade, the G20 will also discuss the implementation of the UN's "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," which aims to eliminate poverty worldwide.
3. Climate Change
Climate policy is also on the agenda, including discussion of the Paris Accord, which President Trump withdrew the U.S. from earlier this year. Germany has been very vocal about their dissatisfaction with the decision, with the environmental minister even publishing a "fact check" to criticize President Trump's move.
4. Health
The issue of health will also be brought up during the summit, with antimicrobial resistance being on the agenda since the year before. Members will work to agree on the appropriate use of antibiotics, and coordinate on incentives to improve research and development in the area.
Wherever possible, they also wish to discuss ways to improve international preparedness for public health emergencies and the global fight against antimicrobial resistance.
5. Economic Empowerment for Women
The G20 also seeks to improve women's economic empowerment. So far, they have agreed on the goal of improving labor force participation gap between men and women by 25% by 2025. At this year's G20 summit, Germany wants to expand on that by also improving the quality of women employment. They will also work to remove existing barriers that prevent women from gaining access to information and communications technology (ICT) in developing countries and improve education and employment prospects in that field.
6. Corruption
In order to suppress corruption, the German Presidency will focus on measures to improve public sector integrity. They also ask for member nations to join a common search for ways to fight corruption, particularly in susceptible areas like wildlife trafficking.
7. Migration and Refugee Flows
In addition to economic, financial, climate, trade, employment, and development policy, Germany also wants to discuss ways to manage immigration and the issue of forced mass migration.
8. Counter-terrorism
In terms of combating international terrorism, the G20 states have decided among other things to dry up channels of terrorist financing by means of closer cooperation and improved exchange of information.
What actually happened?
1. Protests
There were violent protests on the streets of Hamburg leading into the start of the G20 Summit, which lasted about three days. Vehicles were set on fire, stores were looted, and rocks were thrown at authorities who tried to control the protestors. These demonstrators were protesting against the presence of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, climate change, and global wealth inequalities.
Click here to see CNN's coverage of the protests.
2. Trump talks U.S. trade deal with U.K.
President Trump says he expects a trade deal with the U.K. to be completed "very very quickly." He has described the imminent deal as "very big" and "very powerful." In addition, the president says, "Prime Minister May and I have developed a very special relationship and I think trade will be a very big factor between our two countries. "Both President Trump and Prime Minister May have agreed to prioritize work on the trade deal so it can be completed soon after Brexit. They also pledged to look at areas now where the two countries can deepen trade relations. However, no detail about the potential deal was provided.
3. U.S. isolated in talks about climate change
While the U.S. recently pulled out of the Paris Accord, other nations reaffirmed their commitment to tackling climate change this past weekend.
In a meeting, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and France's president, Emmanuel Macron, discussed their common support for the Paris climate agreement. They also expressed their desire to work on joint renewable energy projects. According to China's foreign ministry, Xi also told Macron that China will fulfill its obligations as stated in the Paris agreement.
The U.S.'s isolation is further seen in the G20 communique (official statement), as Merkel displayed her disapproval towards the U.S.'s withdrawal from the Accord, even calling it "regrettable."
The official communique reflects that 19 of the G20 have reaffirmed the Paris Climate Accord as irreversible, however, breaking from tradition, a separate paragraph was included to cover the U.S.'s position on the issue. According to Merkel, the declaration makes it very clear that the U.S.'s stance is not supported by the other 19 nations and that there had been no other compromise on climate change.
Click here to read the full communique
4. Trump and Putin's "tremendous" meeting
Despite all the controversy stirred by the issue of Russian meddling in U.S. elections, President Trump described his meeting with Putin as "tremendous." In fact, the two talked for two and a quarter hours, instead of the scheduled 30 minutes.
Before the meeting, many speculated as to whether the president would confront Putin on Russia's interference in the U.S. election. While U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the president did, in fact, confront Putin, Putin denied those claims. Tillerson later admits that the two leaders had focused on how to move on from here. As to whether President Trump actually stood firm in his confrontation is unclear.
The way President Trump handled the Russia issue was condemned by Democrats and the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, which declared that he had “just unilaterally surrendered to Russia”.
Morgan Finkelstein, press secretary of the CAP, says, "After a bilateral meeting that sounded like a good first Tinder date, based on the official readout, Trump is rewarding Putin’s egregious behavior by giving Putin the platform he so desperately craves without getting anything in return... Trump is unilaterally surrendering American sovereignty and the right to fair elections free of foreign interference. "
Now some wonder if Putin has anything on Trump that could explain why he failed to ask Putin to stop meddling in our elections.
5. Ivanka Trump
There was an outcry of backlash when Ivanka Trump briefly took her father's seat at the leader's table during the summit. Given that the Summit is an exclusive event attended by the world's top leaders, people were critical of the move.
It is also interesting that Ivanka had been so involved in the summit as she told Fox News last month that she is trying to stay out of politics.
6. Trump's humanitarian promises
During the Summit, President Trump also promised to donate $639 million in funding for humanitarian programs. Of which, $331 million will be used to feed starving people in four famine-stricken countries (Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, and Yemen).
However, according to David Beasley, former Republican South Carolina governor who was nominated by Trump as Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme, the additional funding is only about a third of what the agency estimated was required to deal with urgent food needs in those four countries and other areas this year.
This announcement is interesting as it came after President Trump's administration proposed sharp cuts in funding for the U.S. State Department and other humanitarian missions as part of his "America First" policy.
And, now you have everything you need to know!