Saturday 30th October 2021
“Boris! Booorrris!”
G20 summit starts, Johnson is late
It almost became a G20 group photo without British Prime Minister Johnson and his Canadian counterparts. They scurry onto the podium just in time. Host Draghi cheers them on and gives the opening speech. Kremlin boss Putin is causing the first discrepancies.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau caused amusement at the start of the G20 summit in Rome with a slight delay. Your counterparts had already lined up for a group photo that morning and smiled into the cameras when it was noticed that two places on the podium were empty. Only then did Johnson and Trudeau join. “Boris! Booorrris!” Shouted Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to his colleague from Great Britain with a smile.
Johnson and Trudeau scurried past the waiting and amused other top politicians. French President Emmanuel Macron greeted the two late comers with a broad grin with a handshake, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also had to laugh.
The summit then began with appeals for a return to international cooperation. “Whether fighting pandemics, climate protection, a fair global tax system – there is no option to achieve all of this alone,” said the host Italian Prime Minister Draghi. In the past few years, “protectionism, unilateralism and nationalism” had a negative impact on cooperation in the G20 – now it is time for a return to multilateralism.
Doctors and paramedics appreciated
Draghi appealed to leaders: “We must return to the spirit that led to the creation of this group.” The summit in Rome is the first face-to-face meeting of the G20 in more than two years. Germany was represented by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. The presidents of China and Russia were not there – they could be connected via video.
The G20 includes the 19 economically strongest countries from all regions of the world as well as the EU. The main topic on the first day of the summit was the corona pandemic and its consequences. Draghi called on the G20 group to do more to ensure that people in poorer countries can also be vaccinated against the virus. “In the poorest countries, only around three percent received at least one dose of vaccine,” he said. The world must “do everything possible to increase the global vaccination quota to 70 percent by mid-2022”.
As a gesture of appreciation, the Italian hosts invited doctors and paramedics to take part in the traditional group photo of the G20 leaders. At the meeting, Chancellor Merkel praised this as a “wonderful idea”, according to delegation circles. The G20 leaders are aware of the services health workers have made to society.
Putin campaigns for Sputnik V.
Russian President Vladimir Putin caused a dissonance on the first day of the summit: He accused other countries of the G20 group of obstructing the international vaccination campaign because they opposed mutual recognition of vaccines. He accused them of “protectionism and indecent competitive thinking”. The background to this is the fact that the Russian vaccine Sputnik V is not approved in Western countries.
Also because of climate diplomacy, the G20 summit will have a signaling effect shortly before the start of the world climate conference in Glasgow. Summit host Draghi wants the G20 group as a whole to commit to the 1.5 degree target. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the G20 leaders on Friday to show “more ambition and more energy” in climate policy.
Biden stands for international cooperation
The past G20 summits were strongly influenced by the fact that the administration of US President Donald Trump resisted multinational cooperation. The new US President Joe Biden, on the other hand, relies heavily on international diplomacy – especially in areas such as climate protection and trade.
Draghi and other summit participants highlighted the agreement reached by the G20 finance ministers in the summer on the introduction of a global minimum taxation for companies as a great success. The G20 leaders wanted to officially give the green light for this in Rome. The tax clearing shows “what we can achieve if we act together,” said Draghi. US President Biden praised that the deal would benefit the people “by ensuring that companies pay their share”.
Chancellor Merkel has invited her likely successor Scholz to take part in her bilateral meetings with other heads of state and government. Among other things, an encounter with Biden was planned for the afternoon. Meetings with the heads of state and government of India, Singapore, Argentina and South Korea were also planned. The summit takes place under massive security precautions. More than 5,000 police officers and soldiers were on duty, and helicopters circled over the conference site in Rome.