The Group of 20 (G20) Hamburg Summit’s joint communique issued over the weekend clearly stated that all but one of the world’s richest economies would implement the Paris Accord, even if the richest, under President Donald J. Trump, did not sign onto the communique.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a news conference after the summit, openly “deplored” the US’s decision to drop out of the climate accord. She said, “What becomes clear in this declaration [of the G20 summit] is the dissenting view of the United States, but I am gratified to note the other 19 members of G20 say the Paris agreement is irreversible.”
Rarely is such a deep disagreement among world leaders made public. More notably, never before has the US been isolated and painted as an “odd-man out” in such an unequivocal manner. The G20 communique is a clear sign that the developed world no longer turns to the US—at least under Trump—for leadership. It does not help that the former real-estate mogul appears to have fibbed and fumbled about his bilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to US State Secretary Rex Tillerson, Trump opened the meeting by pressing on Putin about alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov corroborated that account, but added Trump accepted Putin’s claims of innocence.
The bilateral meeting between the two resulted in noteworthy developments, such as a multilateral ceasefire among the US, Russia and Jordan in Southwest Syria, and the dubious creation of a working group on cyber security. The conflicting accounts of what actually transpired put his competence as his country’s top diplomat under serious doubt, and cloud the future of the US as world leader.
What is more remarkable, as the UK’s Independent claims, is how Trump does not appear to care that the US is so egregiously out of step with the rest of the world. Trump’s “America First” ironically diminishes America’s prestige rather than advances American influence worldwide.
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