World leaders prepare to wrap up G-20 meeting in China
HANGZHOU, China (AP) — World leaders gathering in China were set Monday to wrap up a Group of 20 summit that had aimed to address sluggish global growth but seemed overshadowed at times by the U.S.-China diplomatic rivalry, South China Sea tensions and Britain’s exit from the European Union.
China had made trade a theme of the meeting in the lakeside city of Hangzhou, southwest of Shanghai, even as it faces complaints that a flood of low-cost steel exports are threatening U.S. and European jobs, fueling demands for trade curbs.
China hopes its status as this year’s G-20 leader will increase its influence in global economic management. Chinese officials want the G-20, created to respond to the 2008 financial crisis, to take on a longer-term regulatory role.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Theresa May and leaders from Japan, South Korea, India and other governments also attended the summit.
The meeting got off to a rocky start Saturday when there was no staircase at the airport for President Barack Obama to exit his plane. Obama used an alternative exit, but quarrels broke out on the tarmac and at other venues over access by U.S. officials and the traveling press.
Overwhelming security characterized the gathering throughout, with Hangzhou, a city of 2.5 million, brought to a standstill to facilitate the event.
North Korea added to the drama on Monday with the firing of three ballistic missiles off its east coast. The U.S. says the tests and other recent ones like it violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, and also pose a threat to aircraft and commercial ships in the region.
At around the same time, Chinese President Xi Jinping was telling his South Korean counterpart, Park Gyun-hye, that China is opposed to the deployment of a powerful U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea.
China has responded angrily to Seoul’s decision to base the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system south of the South Korean capital, Seoul. It was the first time Xi had raised the issue directly with Park.
While Seoul and Washington say the system is intended solely to defend against North Korea’s missile threat, Beijing says it will allow the U.S. military to peer deeply into northeastern China.
Prime Minister May spent much of the summit discussing Britain’s EU exit, which will force the country to define its trading relationships with Europe, the U.S. and other partners.
Obama reiterated that such discussions would take a back seat to Washington’s efforts to push the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with Asia as well as a broader trade pact with Europe.
May said she didn’t want Britain to become inward looking. “We want to be even more outward looking around the whole of the world, and Australia, with our long-standing ties and our close relationship, will be one of the first countries we will be looking to,” she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayypip Erdogan also met to discuss the conflict in Syria and improving their countries’ frayed relations.
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