With the U.S. trying to step out of some of the most important issues at the meeting, the German Chancellor was forced to play negotiator and host.
World leaders wrapped up the Group of 20 (G20) summit on Saturday by releasing their final statement, a communique that was remarkable this year in that it singled out the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement. President Trump’s decision, which he announced in June, dragged out the negotiations well into into Saturday. At a press conference that marked the meetings’ end, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosted the summit in Hamburg, said she “deplored” the U.S. exit from the agreement.
The final statement read: “We take note of the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from the Paris agreement,” but it also added a stern reminder that all other G20 members had reaffirmed the agreement as “irreversible.” In refusing to support the climate agreement, America is now the only country not signed onto the deal except for Syria, which is in the midst of a civil war, and Nicaragua, which believed the agreement wasn’t strong enough.
“Nothing’s easy,” Trump said of how the negotiations played out.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump confer at the first working session of the G20 meeting in Hamburg. Source: REUTERS
