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It should be the last major international appearance of the President of the United States, Donald Trump. But at the beginning of the G20 summit that started on Saturday, he seemed at least distracted: in the first hour, he reported on Twitter with several messages about alleged electoral fraud in the United States and with news about the health of his son Donald Trump Junior, who raised his voice. According to media reports, infected with the corona virus.
Host Saudi Arabia had just called for joint efforts by major industrial and emerging countries to deal with the corona pandemic. “We have a duty to meet the challenge together at this summit and to deliver a strong message of hope,” King Salman of Saudi Arabia said in a video link on Saturday.
The two-day summit will focus primarily on fighting the pandemic, vaccine distribution, and the economic consequences of the corona crisis. For Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel will participate in the virtual meeting.
UN calls for vaccine to be distributed fairly around the world
The EU, the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as Norway and South Africa had asked the summit participants in advance in a letter to make more money available to fight the pandemic. With a corresponding WHO initiative, there is a funding gap of $ 4.5 billion (€ 3.8 billion).
Experts fear that rich countries will lock in vaccine doses and that developing countries will be left behind. UN Secretary General António Guterres warned again on Friday that corona vaccines must “reach everyone.” For the fair distribution of a vaccine, Guterres pointed to the importance of the international initiative Covax, which has already been joined by more than 150 countries, including China, but not the US Germany has contributed 100 million euros to the program. However, the German delegation announced that there would be no more financial commitments at the G20 summit.
In addition to Merkel, Chinese head of state Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump participate in the two-day deliberations. The president-elect of the United States, who will remain in office until January 20, will play a key role. It is not only seen as a brake on containing the pandemic, but also on the second main theme of the summit, the fight against global warming.
However, after Joe Biden’s election victory, it is to be hoped that the US will re-engage more in climate protection. Following the example of the EU, half of the G20 members plan to be climate neutral or at least CO2 neutral by 20502– be neutral.
Criticism for human rights violations
The summit was supposed to be a major event with thousands of guests in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh. It would have been the first major meeting of the G20 in the Arab world. However, the crown pandemic thwarted the royal family’s bill. Now the heads of state and government only chat for about six hours on video. Otherwise important conversations in private or in small groups are eliminated.
On the sidelines of the summit, the Reporters Without Borders organization criticized host Saudi Arabia as one of the world’s “most successful jailers of journalists.” The kingdom restricts freedom of the press like almost no other country. There are currently 34 journalists jailed for their work there. The French organization also referred to the brutal murder of anti-government journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.
Saudi Arabia is repeatedly criticized for human rights violations. Members of the Bundestag from various parliamentary groups had asked Merkel before the summit to discuss the human rights situation in the Gulf state on video conference.
Together, the G20 members represent more than 85 percent of the world’s economic output and two-thirds of the world’s population. The G20 includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, France, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the EU.
