G20 summit confronts a global order unsettled by Trump's return

Leaders of the Group of 20 major economies were set to meet on Monday in Brazil for their annual summit, bracing for a shift in the global order with the return to power of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump.

Discussions of trade, climate change, and international security will run up against sharp U.S. policy changes that Trump vows to implement upon taking office in January, from tariffs to the promise of a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine.

While U.S President Joe Biden arrives as a lame duck with just two months remaining in the White House, China's President Xi Jinping will be a central player at a G20 summit riven with geopolitical tensions amid the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

"It's not only geopolitics that is causing us concern but also China's economic and financial role, which is very prominent in many issues," said a German official, who requested anonymity to discuss the diplomatic tensions freely.

While China has been in Russia's camp on Ukraine, Germany believes Beijing will find that position harder to sustain as the conflict has become "globalized" with Russia's deployment of North Korean troops bringing it "to China's doorstep," another official said.

Sources said that diplomats drafting a joint statement for the summit's leaders have struggled to hold together a fragile agreement on addressing the escalating Ukraine war, even a vague call for peace without criticism of any participants.

Reuters