Donald Trump’s victory risks throwing G20 initiatives into chaos

Donald Trump’s election as US president has threatened international initiatives on climate change and taxes, as diplomats from the world’s richest countries struggle to maintain an unstable consensus ahead of the G20 summit in Brazil.

Argentina and President Javier Milei, a close ally of Trump, have threatened to block a communiqué to be adopted by G20 leaders at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro starting on Monday, because of objections. regarding taxes on the super-rich and gender. equality, people briefed on the negotiations told the Financial Times.

Diplomats are racing to reach a final consensus on statements related to climate finance and geopolitical issues, such as Russia’s war against Ukraine, the people said. as leaders began arriving in the Brazilian city.

Negotiators from the 20 participating countries, plus the EU and African Union, said a compromise text had been circulated for preliminary approval on Sunday night, but it was unclear whether all whether the country agrees with it or not.

Brazilian officials are looking forward to bilateral talks with the Argentine delegation, a person briefed on the talks said.

The struggle to agree how much developing countries contribute to financing efforts to combat global warming is reflected in negotiations at the United Nations. COP29 The climate summit took place simultaneously in Baku.

Milei’s stance has raised concerns among many Western diplomats, who fear Trump’s election will embolden his conservative allies and spark a wave of interstate migration. from ambitious agreements on issues such as global warming. Trump vowed to pull America out of the Paris climate agreement.

“[The Argentine government] want to do G20 in Brazil is a test between old and new forces,” said a Brazilian official. “After a year of tax negotiations and consensus, they are making problems of things they previously accepted, word for word.”

Buenos Aires’ objections to the draft communiqué initially prepared by leaders’ representatives in the Brazilian city followed Milei’s talks with Trump in Florida on Thursday, in the president’s first meeting. US President-elect with a foreign leader since he won the election.

Argentina was the only country to vote against a United Nations resolution last week denouncing online violence against women and girls.

Sir Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, denied that Milei’s skepticism about climate change and Trump’s impending arrival in the White House were the death knell for global cooperation on the issue. “No, I don’t think so,” he said.

Starmer, just returned from UN climate talks in Baku, told reporters on his way to Rio: “Among the reasons I went to the COP last week was because I thought it was important that the United States The UK must show leadership on an important issue.”

Asked about Argentina’s position, António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, told reporters in Rio: “We are seeing some negotiations in the G20 and I ask all countries to have God agrees. . . to make this meeting a success. If the G20 is divided, the organization will lose global leverage and influence.”

The Rio Summit, where Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will convene discussions focusing on fighting poverty, reform of governance in international institutions and climate, is the first gathering of leaders from the world’s most powerful countries since the US election, after many skipped the COP29 summit.

Many officials present at the event – where Lula will form a global coalition to fight hunger – fear the event will be overshadowed by the knowledge that Trump opposes many of the previously planned conclusions.

“We should all have sat there and talked about the future of global cooperation and pretended there wasn’t a guy on the way there. [to the White House] Who doesn’t care,” said a European official involved in the negotiations. “It’s hard to see how things are decided [here] There are many futures.”

Argentina objected to the inclusion of language around the tax that Milei’s government agreed to last month at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, according to people briefed on the talks.

The October declaration pledged to “work together towards a fairer, more inclusive, stable and effective international tax system fit for the 21st century, reaffirming our commitment to transparency tax and promote global dialogue on tax efficiency, including taxing the super high incomes of high net worth individuals.” individual”.

Milei also objected to mention of the Paris agreement and pledged “unity in pursuing its goals,” officials said. Another point of Argentina’s resistance was the mention of the United States’ 2030 agenda for sustainable development.

Milei pulled his team of negotiators from this week’s COP29 summit, as negotiators in Baku grapple with trying to make progress on a deal to mobilize more global funds for climate finance.

The struggle to reach a G20 communiqué has added to existing tensions within the group over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war in the Middle East.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the Rio summit, but his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is expected to continue Beijing’s stance on blocking Western efforts to condemn Moscow about the war against neighboring countries.

This will also be the final summit for US President Joe Biden, whose administration has sought to leverage multilateral organizations such as Nato, the G7 and G20 to find responses to issues such as war. Ukrainian painting.

“So all the work we did with the United States [under Biden] – What do we do with it now?” said a senior European diplomat. “We have lost the initiative.”